ABOR 
• REVOLT 





Class ±ilLS.a:Zi 

Book_J"_^ 

Copyright iN" ^ 



CDPnilGHT DEPOSIC 



LABOR and REVOLT 



LABOR and REVOLT 



BY 

STANLEY FROST . 

AUTHOR OF 

"Germany's New War against America," etc. 




NEW YORK 
E. P. BUTTON AND CO. 

68i FIFTH AVENUE 



Copyright, 1920, by 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 



All rights reserved 






?<!'7'' 



©CLA604099 



Printed vn the United States of America 



::\ s5i;io 



This book is dedicated to the memory of my brother 

and is written in the hope that it may contribute in 
some measure to the preservation and advancement 
of the American Liberties for which he gave his life. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



My most grateful acknowledgments are due to Marie de 
Montalvo, at whose suggestion this book was written, and whose 
criticism and assistance have been invaluable. I wish also to ex- 
press my profound thanks to officials of the Lusk Committee, of 
various branches of the government services of the United States 
and Canada, to friends in the labor movement, and to others 
whose help has made it possible to gather the facts presented. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
A GIANT IN UPHEAVAL 

CHAPTER I 

BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 

PAGE 

Civilization again faces an old enemy — The historic mirage 
of Communism — Its beauty, weakness and danger — Its 
ally, the religion of loot — Bolshevism and its dis- 
guises — Class-w^ars of the past: the Helots, Spartacus, 
the Jacobin period of the French Revolution — The Paris 
Commune — The contagion of Jacobinism in America — 
Other outbreaks of discontent here — The sure ebb of 
each flood — Problems that remain 3 

CHAPTER II 

OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 

New era coming in America — Labor Giant to dominate it — 
His power already apparent — His strength, weaknesses 
and appetite — His blindness and gullibility — His con- 
fusion of ideas — Wealth and money — What constitutes 
the cost of living — ^the rising standards — his demand 
for "the whole product" — Conflicting interests and equal 
rights 23 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III 

FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 

PAGE 

Aspiration in the present unrest — Immediate causes of the 
outburst: war and its after effects, opportunities during 
reconstruction, high cost of living, swollen profits of 
blood-money, desperation at forced lowering of stand- 
ard of living, curtailment of free speech, the example of 
Russia — Surface indications that seems to make dis- 
content unreasonable and the deeper facts : living stand- 
ards still too low, ingrained fears not met, the sense 
of injustice, the wider outlook and ambitions 41 

CHAPTER IV 

THE giant's pockets PICKED 

The bitterness of Labor, its fear and distrust of employers — 
Their complication of the crisis — Their share of blame : — 
long-standing abuses and exploitation, broken prom- 
ises, manipulation of piece work prices, use of 
Negroes as strike-breakers, abuses that laws have 
stopped — The conspiracy for re-action against unionism, 
collective bargaining, the living wage and Labor's right 
to know the facts of industry — The false cry of "Bol- 
shevism" — Labor's real struggle against the Reds 58 

CHAPTER V 

THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 

Labor shortage gives power to Labor — Immigration, its in- 
jury to Labor, its abuse by Capital, the chance of its 
being renewed — Co-ordination gives Labor a bigger 
club — Dominance of industry almost certain — Labor's 
growing power in politics — Small importance of the 
Labor Party — The borrowed Anti-Saloon League 
method, its strength and limitations — Political control by 
Labor to cement the industrial autocracy 11 



CONTENTS iz 

PART II 
THE WRECKERS 

CHAPTER VI 

THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 

PAGE 

Germans help stir unrest — The sham of German Socialism 
and its dominance of American Radicalism — The pro- 
Germanism of the Socialists — Their war record — The 
interlocking of Radicalism and obstruction of the War — 
The German corruption funds — The poison that came 
through Russia — Soviet "ambassador" here a German — 
The German motive and the pretense of her weakness 
and reformation 95 

CHAPTER VH 

DECOYS — ^AND LOOT 

Safety first for Red propaganda — ^Varied beliefs unite for 
mischief only — Some differences as to method — The 
three classes of revolutionaries: Socialists, Syndicalists, 
Anarchists — The various Red aims: abolition of all au- 
thority, of God, of morals, of race distinction, of ad- 
vantages from brains or training — Political parties be- 
come propaganda agencies — The anti-Americanism of 
the Socialist Party — The Socialist Labor Party — The 
Labor Party — The Industrial Workers of the World — 
The Camouflage of Revolution — The real purpose 117 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE RE-BIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 

Substituting laziness for unemployment; an historical ex- 
periment — The need of spurs to industriousness — The- 
ories that have been disproved still preached by Ameri- 
can Reds — Excessive price fixing, fiat money, division ol 



CONTENTS 



property, government ownership, under-valuation of 
brains — How Socialist economic theories failed in Bel- 
gium — How Socialist political theories failed in Ger- 
many 141 

CHAPTER IX 

THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 

The similarity in class-revolutions — Tests of revolutionary 
idealism — The failures : of political freedom and equal- 
ity, of popular rule, of equality of reward, of freedom 
for labor, of free speech, of a higher status for women — 
The results of these failures — The inevitableness of the 
Terror — Terrorism as a dogma — Plans for the Terror 
in America — The White Terror — Class-revolution in full 
flower 158 



PART III ^ 

UNLEASHING THE WHIRLWIND 

CHAPTER X 

THE RED BORERS 

The resurrection of Revolution — New idea behind new hope — 
Long failure in America — The challenge to conservative 
labor — Gompers' position — The sudden change in Red 
Strategy — The steel strike and the uncovering of the 
"borers from within" — Great success of the new method 
— Hope of bringing on Revolution through it 175 

CHAPTER XI 

THE SEEPING POISON 

Pacifists as a field for Red propaganda — The kind of appeal 
used — Penetration of reform organizations through paci- 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

fist aid— Attempts to use these to cultivate unrest— Ex- 
ploitation of educators, of the pulpit, of rich and idle 
women — The interlocking directorate of Radicalism — 
Penetration into government services 190 

CHAPTER XII 

THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 

Suppression of free speech for Revolution, and how it aided 
the Reds — Allies it brought them — Suppression more 
apparent than real — Dangers of suppression and its small 
effect — Red propaganda by word of mouth — The army 
of lecturers — Revolutionary training schools — The great 
periodical press — The pamphlet press — The use of for- 
eign languages — The "liberal" press — The mutual sup- 
port of all Red propaganda — The cost of the work — 
The men behind it — Propaganda made in Petrograd. . . . 198 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 

The Red attack on the "capitalistic press" — Grounds for this 
and reasons for those grounds — Some Red lies: about 
history, about economic conditions, about Labor's 
suffering, about American "tyranny," about the war, 
about current events — The flood of lies about the suc- 
cess of the Russian Soviets — Suppression of all news 
unfavorable to the Red propaganda — A Socialist tells 
the truth about the Red press 212 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 

The Red Challenge to the theory and practice of Democ- 
racy — What the Reds mean by "rule of the people" — 
Radical Labor far from a majority — Revolution's plans 



zii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

to use force — the Red bludgeon; industrial unionism, 
the sympathetic strike, the "burglar" strike, sabotage, 
the political strike, the general strike — The contempt 
of public suffering — The demand for Revolution by 
slaughter 229 

CHAPTER XV 

THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 

The Red appeal to idealism — and to greed — Incitement to 
theft, to irresponsibiHty — Exploitation of real wrongs 
and efforts to create new ones — Stirring up of lawless- 
ness — Stirring up of hatreds — Efforts to stimulate Negro 
unrest; plan of campaign, the radical Negro press, sex 
equality, incitement to race riot and reprisals — The culti- 
vation of aliens and national disunity, the foreign lan- 
guage press — Schools of Revolution — ^Labor their vic- 
tim — Opposition to all reform — The line between Red 
and Radical — The strategy of the Reds: strikes, panic, 
and misery to bring on Revolution 257 



PART IV 
THE SUICIDE OF PROSPERITY 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE GIANT WAVERING 

Organized Labor staggers under Red attack — Uncertainty 
as to degree of success of the "borers" — The geography 
of labor-radicalism — American Federation of Labor on 
defensive — Revolts among the unions — Measures taken 
against radicals — ^Counter-attack by the Labor press — 
Conservative leaders' hands forced — The steel and coal 
strikes — Labor as the first line of defense against Bol- 
shevism — Its need of immediate support 281 



CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER XVII 

TYING THE HANDS ON INDUSTRY 

PAGE 

The change in Detroit — Effects of Red campaign on Labor: 
increase in strikes, growth of arrogance, unwilKngness 
to arbitrate, excessive demands, increased lawlessness, 
breaking of agreements, refusal to accept responsibility — 
Political threats — Disregard of public rights — The Labor 
Party — Civil service strikes a challenge to Democ- 
racy — The impossibility of divided loyalty 293 

CHAPTER XVIII 

THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 

The Red drive to lower production — Some simple economic 
laws defied — The myth of "over-production" — ^Labor's 
reduction of prosperity by strikes, by excessive wage 
demands by too short hours, by slacking — The "just-so- 
much-work-to-be-done" fallacy — The cost of slacking 
since the war — ^Who foots the bills — The "vicious circle" 
of increasing costs — All progress scotched — The social 
and economic failure of Australian Labor 310 

CHAPTER XIX 

SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 

Soap-box financing; the Red's visior — ^What Labor receives 
from its product — Burdens it must always carry; dis- 
tribution, replacement of machinery, enlargement of in- 
dustrial plant, experiments — "Hoarded wealth" really at 
work — How wealth is distributed now — Labor could not 
increase its share more than one-fourth — Excess wages 
would "eat up the fat" of social accumulation and bring 
bankruptcy — The sure victory of mathematics over 
theory 332 



xiv CONTENTS 

PART V 
THE DANGER AND THE HOPE 

CHAPTER XX 

THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 

PAGE 

The spreading panic — Talk of "fighting it out" — Democ- 
racy's defenses: prosperity, lack of classes, individual- 
ism, the fundamental conflict between Labor and the 
farmers, the reserve corps in the Appalachians, the 
power of counter organization, the "white collar" re- 
serves of labor power, the increasing power of women, 
the strength of the majority, the final resource of 
force — The weaknesses of Democracy: our powers not 
self-starting, ignorance wide-spread, the Negro, the 
alien, irresolution and cowardice in government — The 
fundamental strength 349 

CHAPTER XXI 

THE RED DANGER 

The Optimism of the Reds — The ever-receding revolution — 
The real number of revolutionaries — Greatest danger in 
effect on Labor — The menace of the general strike — 
How society can meet it — The British organization — 
The Winnipeg organization — The weaknesses of Revolu- 
tion: disunity, poor leadership, ingrowing distrust, emo- 
tional effect of defeats — The possibility of a sudden 
conflagration 370 

CHAPTER XXn 

THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 

The lack of nutrition in owl's milk — Labor demands that 
must be met — Labor's political power, its menace and 
cure — The hope of increased prosperity — Changes in 



CONTENTS XV 



PAGE 

distribution not enough — Means of swelling produc- 
tion — The price of industrial security — Democracy in 
industry — The margin of time 380 



CHAPTER XXIII 

PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 

plea for the Reds; evils that lead to Revolution an in- 
heritance of centuries — ^An excuse for the "intellectual" 
zealots — The great purpose and meaning behind Labor's 
errors — The wide need of education and counter-propa- 
ganda — The price of security more complete civiliza- 
tion — No need to fear result — Final outcome certain to 
be Progress 397 



PART I 
A GIANT IN UPHEAVAL 



CHAPTER I 

BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 

Civilization again faces an old enemy — ^The historic mirage of 
Communism — Its beauty, weakness and danger — Its ally, 
the religion of loot — Bolshevism and its disguises — Class- 
wars of the past, the Helots, Spartacus, the Jacobin period 
of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune — The con- 
tagion of Jacobinism in America — Other outbreaks of dis- 
content here — The sure ebb of each flood — Problems that 
remain. 

The close of the first year after the signing of the 
armistice with Germany saw signals of distress flying 
from every political and industrial masthead in the 
United States. The simultaneous onslaught of Revo- 
lution and Labor, which many people believed to be 
a single movement, had brought a large part of the 
country to the verge of hysteria. The nation had 
wanted, and had expected, to be able to rest from its 
exertions during the war, to heal its sores, and re- 
establish its comforts. Instead it had to turn to battle 
with unexpected and little understood enemies, and 
at the same time to attempt a sudden solution of in- 
dustrial problems which had been optimistically shoved 
into the background through many years. 

The result was confusion of thought and action, 
hesitation, vacillation, almost panic. Vague, menacing 

3 



4 LABOR AND REVOLT 

shapes filled the air and distorted the vision of many 
who should have been able to see clearly and ready to 
lead. Real damage was being done and real menaces 
were arising, and the real and the fancied became in- 
extricably entangled. 

Yet by that time it had become possible to form a 
just and reasonable estimate of the menace — or the 
two menaces, for that of Labor is largely distinct from 
that of Revolution in spite of many seeming similar- 
ities. It had become possible, too, to see through the 
dangers the great and real good which they may bring, 
and will bring if they are intelligently met. The forces 
behind the two attacks, their aims, their methods, and 
their chances of success, all had become sufficiently 
well defined for fair appraisal. 

UNREST A CHRONIC AILMENT 

First in any such appraisal stands the fact that the 
menace of this acute and general unrest, though al- 
most new to America and presenting many new fea- 
tures, is in fact as old as history. 

Every form of society has had its human wreckage 
— ^men and women who have failed to win success, 
failed even to win ordinary comfort and safety from 
the struggle that is life. Some have been, and are to- 
day, simple misfits ; some are lazy, unruly, incompetent 
or unstable. The lot of all these has always been — 
and is to-day, the unhappy one of the failure: to hunger 
and freeze, and know only from envy those things 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 5 

which make life pleasant. And since the lack of a clear 
and honest vision is common, these must needs blame 
the world, and not themselves. 

Before their eyes and also those of a certain type 
of idealists, generously touched by misery but unfitted 
to attempt its cure, there has floated through all his- 
tory the mirage of a time when the strong and success- 
ful should carry the weak and imfit, when law should 
wipe out the difference between man and man, when 
society should take on the burdens that now rest on 
each man's or woman's shoulders and there should be 
no more inequality and no more want. This mirage 
of Communism, this dream of Utopia, has been the 
ideal upon which has been built every radical revolu- 
tionary scheme for centuries. 

Bolshevism is, for to-day at least, the extreme of 
Socialistic Communism. Anarchism is a kind of Com- 
mimism without laws. Syndicalism is an anarchy of 
communes. Take out the Communism and Revolu- 
tion has nothing left to fight for. 

Yet history is full of the failures of Communism; 
some tragic, some comic, all complete. It has been 
tried from all angles, from every point of view, by 
persuasion, by fraud and by force, and always its his- 
tory has been the same — its supporters have fallen 
away and have fallen out among themselves and the 
thing has ended for a time. But its promises are so 
great for certain types of minds, that always there 
are new prophets of the old error arising and trying 
to entice or drive men into it. 



6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

There is much of beauty in the communist ideaL 
There is only one objection to it — the story of its 
thousand failures. 



THE WOLF INSIDE THE SHEEP S CLOTHING 

But behind this idealism is a thing utterly different, 
yet as old. It is another vision — a vision of a time 
when the weak should rule the strong, when the im- 
provident and shiftless should seize the goods of the 
prudent and the industrious, when there should be, for 
the dreamers, a life without work and without respon- 
sibilities, duties or burden. This is the other vision 
that is seen to-day, as always, by many. 

Thus we have a religion of loot, a dogma of piracy, 
a philosophy of ignorance and misrule triumphant — 
at best a creed of utter irresponsibility. It tells the 
"have-nots'* to seize all from the "haves'*; women 
and life and opportunity as well as property; it teaches 
hatred and cruelty and bloodlust as the keys to "broth- 
erhood" ; it sanctifies every manner of force and vio- 
lence, and makes no call on its disciples for any virtues 
other than voracity and ruthlessness. 

Yet it hides behind the words and formulae of the 
idealists, steals their dogma and phrases, and can claim 
their support and use them till it has gained strength 
enough to throw off its mask — of which they are a 
part. 

This is the spirit of Bolshevism — a mixed, incon- 
gruous, inconsistent spirit. Technically "Bolshevism" 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 7 

is a slang name, like "Bull Moose,'' for the extreme 
radical wing of the Russian socialist groups, and is 
only a small part of the day's revolutionary menace. 
But practically, since Bolshevist leaders are the present 
incarnation of this age-old combination of plunder 
and idealism, the name has come to represent to the 
world the whole spirit of Red Social Revolution, of 
class hatred and of greed, whether or not that hatred 
and greed give formal allegiance to the flag of Bol- 
shevism. 



ALLIES OF THE WOLF-PACK 

Neither Communism nor Bolshevism would be dan- 
gerous, however, if they had to stand alone. But at 
recurring times and in various places, they have had 
powerful help from the outside. Misrule, exploita- 
tion, tyranny in all its forms, the ever-reaching greed 
and heartlessness of those who have held power — ^these 
have been their allies. They have often and again 
driven great masses into such conditions of life that 
misery turned to desperation, and sufferers became for 
a time the supporters of the born Bolshevists. This 
was true of France in 1789, it was true of Russia in 
1917. 

Bolshevism has had other allies as well. It can, 
under the sheep's clothing of its idealistic partners, 
appeal powerfully to the spirits of reform and of 
ambition which are shared by all good men. Reform 
and ambition must always fight, and often they fight 



8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

against terribly unfair handicaps and grow weary in 
the struggle. To them Bolshevism whispers its vision 
of perfection at a stroke, of the destruction of every 
evil and every handicap at a blow and in a bundle; 
or it merely promises help to attain the ends which 
reform and ambition have already set. It need not be 
too explicit nor too scrupulous in its promises, if only 
it can for a moment substitute violent revolution for 
reasoned progress. 



MODERN WOLVES TRUE TO BREED 

The outbreak with which Civilization is fighting to- 
day differs in no important aspect from those of the 
past. Not all who have joined in it wish to go to 
extremes, and, as has been said, not all admit alle- 
giance to Bolshevism in name. But all are agreed on 
the first steps toward Bolshevism, and since that is 
to-day the clearest, best defined and most vigorous of 
the revolutionary movements, it may fairly be taken 
as having given the keynote to the present outbreak. 

Here are the principles of to-day's Revolution, taken 
from the Constitution of the Soviet Republic: 

To fight everywhere and without sparing their strength 
for the complete power of the working classes. ... In order 
to put an end to every ill that oppresses humanity and in 
order to secure to labor all the rights belonging to it, we 
recognize that it is necessary to destroy the existing social 
structure, which rests upon private property. . . . 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 9 

Lenin, the greatest of the Bolshevists, says: "The 
proletarian state is the apparatus by which the prole- 
tariat suppresses the bourgeoisie." And, as showing 
the unity with Communism — "the workers in various 
countries have gone over to Communism and Bolshev- 
ism." In his use of the words "proletarians" and 
"bourgeoisie" it may be assumed that Lenin, trained 
in the school of Karl Marx, founder of modern Social- 
ism, follows Marx's definition: "By bourgeoisie is 
meant the class of modern Capitalists, owners of 
means of social production, and employers of wage- 
labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage-labor- 
ers who, having no means of production of their own, 
are reduced to selling their labor power in order to 
live." 

Thus the object of Revolution, stripped of jargon, 
is clear: The wage workers are to be inspired 
through class-hatred to class-war, are to seize all 
wealth, and rule the world, excluding all but them- 
selves from any share in power. 

It is often stated that Bolshevism is a foreign 
product, too foreign to American spirit and tempera- 
ment to be a danger here. But it is already a danger 
and it is not wholly foreign. Its formulator was 
Daniel de Leon, a Venezuelan of Spanish family, for 
years a member of the Columbia law school faculty. 
His teachings have transformed the philosophy of 
Marx from a political theory to a violent revolutionary 
scheme. Moreover the essence of Bolshevism, in all 
important particulars, is found coloring all American 



lo LABOR AND REVOLT 

Radicalism. Even the comparatively moderate Social- 
ist Party declares that "ours is a dying social order/' 
that there must be "a complete transformation of Cap- 
italist society/' and that "the main struggle of the 
masses is to secure control of these basic institutions/' 

Starting from these principles, mild only in com- 
parison with some others, and less mild in actual intent 
than in their careful and ultra-diplomatic phrasing, 
Radicalism goes to every extreme in America to-day. 
Agitation is sweeping the country, and such occur- 
rences as the strikes in Seattle, Winnipeg, and Boston, 
and those of the miners and steel workers show that 
our whole social fabric is torn, that every principle 
of our Democracy is challenged. 

Yet this challenge is new only in America, and even 
here it differs from previous outbursts more in name 
and methods than in anything else. 

BOLSHEVISM BESIDE THE PYRAMIDS 

For Bolshevism is old. Go back 3500 years, to 
about the time when David ruled in Jerusalem, and we 
find Bolshevism — not under that name, of course — in 
Egypt. Here is a picture drawn by a priest, Apoui, 
about 1500 B. C: 

Serfs and laborers, released from control, will thrust out 
their masters. They will hang gold, lapis-luzmli, carnelian, 
malachite, around the necks of their wives, while princesses 
will be thrown into the street. The son of a man of stand- 
ing will no longer be preferred to him who is the son of one 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE n 

of no rank. Temples will no longer be respected. The books 
of the sanctuary will be taken away and the mysterious 
shrines will be unveiled. The archives will be opened and 
the titles to property stolen. Violence will rule in all 
places. 

He who lacked bread has now a granary and his larder is 
full with what lately belonged to another. . . . The beggar 
woman who had no other mirror than the water now paints 
her eyes before a beautiful looking glass. . . . The laborer 
without one serf is master of hundreds of servants. 

The fields will no longer be cultivated. Each man will 
say: "What is the use of it? Do we know what is going 
to happen to the land?" 

Terrible epidemics will break out, which will attack all 
classes alike. The plague will lay hold. . . . There will be 
bloodshed everywhere. 

The rich will lament, the poor will rejoice and cities will 
say, "Let us drive out the powerful from amongst us." The 
explusion will not take place without violence, and civil war 
will desolate. . . » 

Together with this picture of Bolshevisin when the 
Sphinx was young, we may put a dozen others. There 
were the frequent revolts of Sparta's underlings, the 
Helots. There was Spartacus, who led what was prac- 
tically a strike against the Roman government — 6000 
of his followers were hanged along the road from 
Rome to Capua. There was Martinique, where Tous- 
saint UOuverture led the Negro slaves in a revolt that 
was completely successful, and has condemned the 
beautiful island to a hideous savagery ever since. 

But most important and most recent and clear are 
the French parallels, the Jacobin period of the French 



12 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Revolution, and the Commune of 1871. In the first, 
from the fall of the King to the execution of Robes- 
pierre, the Revolution was out from under the control 
of the middle classes, who began and ended it, and 
was dominated by the proletariat, or by what went 
under that name, the riif-raff of the nation gathered 
in Paris. This period was marked by the seizure of 
property, the attacks on the church and on religion, 
the attempt to finance the nation on paper, the confis- 
cation of grain from the peasants for the benefit of the 
cities, the controlling of elections by force and fraud, 
the suppression of free speech and the press, secrecy 
of government, attempts to fix prices on food and 
clothing, want, misery and finally the Terror. It was 
marked by almost every excess that characterizes 
Bolshevism to-day. 

The Paris Commune went along the same path, so 
far as its brief life gave it time. 

So high an authority as Prince Peter Kropotkin, the 
great anarchist leader, declared in 1908 that the 
French revolutionary writers "were imbued with the 
ideas which are the very essence of modern socialism." 
He accuses the middle classes, who restored order 
after the Terror, and brought France back to sanity 
and prosperity, of "adroitly betraying the revolution." 

CONTAGION ALWAYS CROSSES THE OCEAN 

America always, as to-day, has had her share in these 
disturbances. Whatever excitement may be flourish- 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 13 

ing abroad finds its echo here, and in addition we de- 
velop troubles of our own. Between them there is 
hardly a doctrine being preached from a soap-box in 
Madison Square or from a stump in the Oregon woods 
that has not been heard before by American ears. In 
some ways the modern attack is the more mild. 

Most violent of these earlier American outbursts 
was that which paralleled the Jacobin rule in France. 
"Citizen" Genet came to America in 1793, with the 
red cap of Jacobin liberty at the masthead of his ship, 
and started a campaign to induce America to join 
France in war on Britain. He was received with im- 
mense acclaim and when Washington stood firm 
against his demands cities, states and classes seemed to 
vie with one another in howling against the president, 
and threatening the overturn of our government. 

Every excess of the Terror became the subject of 
tremendous approval from press, pulpit and platform. 
There were demands that a reign of terror on the 
French model should be started here, and that the 
guillotine should be fed with "bourgeoisie, capitalist 
and stock-jobber." The torch for the homes of wealth 
and the dagger for conservative — that is, law-abiding 
— officials, were openly demanded. When Washing- 
ton issued his proclamation of neutrality between 
France and Britain he dared not use the word "neu- 
trality," having been assured by Jefferson, the great 
advocate of equality, that the country would not en- 
dure it. 

The Jacobin contagion in America swept away 



14 LABOR AND REVOLT 

every obstacle to its progress. Genet's journey about 
the country was one long triumph. He was received 
by governors and mayors, planters and business men, 
while the ''proletariat" gathered in throngs around 
the banqueting halls and shrieked itself hoarse. In 
Philadelphia and throughout the country Jacobin 
clubs professing the principles of government which 
correspond to those of Russia in 19 19, were formed by 
the score. 

So strong was the sentiment that a French warship 
in the harbor of Philadelphia seized a British ship, 
and released her only when it became evident that 
President Washington was about to take forcible 
action. Everywhere the laws of neutrality were over- 
stepped. In Baltimore two privateers were fitted out 
to prey on British shipping, and when Washington or- 
dered them back the local authorities sent his orders 
in vessels so slow that there was no chance of their 
being delivered. When Gideon Hanfield, an Amer- 
ican, was caught serving on a French privateer, a Phil- 
adelphia jury acquitted him, and the verdict was 
cheered in the streets. In the Carolinas a scheme was 
broached for invading Florida and ousting the Span- 
iards, with whom France happened to be at war, and 
in Kentucky an expedition was planned to float down 
the Mississippi and seize New Orleans. 

The Jacobin economic theories had their fling on 
this side, too. A Pittsburgh club adopted resolutions 
demanding that every holder of securities in joint 
stock companies in America should immediately be 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 15 

guillotined, because their owning stock proved that 
they had more money than they needed to live on. 

An incident of the agitation was the 'Whiskey 
Rebellion" in Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and 
Virginia. It was started for the purpose of resisting 
a small Federal tax on liquor, and grew to such pro- 
portions before it faded away, that Edmund Randolph 
of Virginia declared it was the beginning of the end 
of the Republic, and Washington started to send 
armed forces under General Lee to conquer it. 

SAME accusations; same phrases 

This outburst reached its height in 1795, Just after 
the ratification of a treaty with Britain. It was 
charged that Minister Jay, the president and the sena- 
tors who voted for the treaty had all been bought with 
"British gold" — a phrase we have heard recently. It 
was further charged that the treaty was the work of 
the aristocrats and stock-jobbers, who hoped by it to 
prevent the new "international fraternity of the 
people." 

As the last phrase suggests, much of the cant of that 
day was the same as our own, so that even the lan- 
guage of Bolshevism is not new. We find throughout 
the propaganda of the Red agitation of 1793-5 — for 
propaganda was used then as now, though it had not 
yet been given the name by which we call it — such 
phrases as these: "the new internationalism," "unity 
of the people of all nations," "antiquated and crum- 



i6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

bling methods of a rotten society/' and ''brotherhood 
of men and the destruction of all Governments, aristo- 
crats and capitalists." 

But the excitement subsided even more quickly than 
it had grown when America learned the truth about 
the defeat and vanishing of the Jacobin-Bolshevism of 
France. Genet did not dare return to France, where 
under the new government the guillotine he had 
praised so passionately waited to give him its personal 
attention. He married a daughter of Governor De 
Witt Clinton of New York, settled down as a farmer, 
and later helped improve the breed of sheep and lent 
his eloquence to the work of getting the Erie canal 
started. By a strange coincidence his great-grandson 
was the first man killed in France in 19 17 under the 
American flag. Brockholst Livingston, leader of a 
Jacobin riot against Hamilton in New York, became 
a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
In Philadelphia the Rittenhouses, the Sergeants and 
the Biddies, all of whom had been active among the 
reds, returned to support of the political system for 
which their names stand to this day. 

Thus passed America's worst attack of Radicalism 
and many of its leaders became the most conservative 
of citizens. There is further comfort for those who 
are over-alarmed by the dangers of 1920 in the fact 
that in using this particular key of the past to "un- 
lock the future's portals" there is no stain of blood to 
be found on it. The American Reds of 1794 took it 
all out in words. 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 17 

AMERICANS HOME-GROWN UNREST 

These were not, however, the only semi-Bolshevistic 
disturbances in America's early history. The record 
of the home-grown troubles dates back to the first half- 
century of settlement, when what was known as 
Bacon's Rebellion broke out in Virginia. The cause 
of the poor man against the rich had a great part in 
this brave attempt to end the notorious theft and ex- 
tortion of Berkeley's reign. With this went the same 
attacks on property that we hear to-day, and Bacon's 
followers were accused of being "a lawless rabble 
poisoned by communistic notions." 

Another period of excitement came in Jefferson's 
administration, in the early years of the past century. 
The fears felt then were greater than any that have 
yet been expressed for our immediate future. In his 
"History of the United States," Henry Adams de- 
clares that "a sense of a coming crisis overhung these 
wise and virtuous men like the gloom of death." He 
was referring to such men as Rufus King, Cabot, 
Pickering, Ames, and even Hamilton. 

"Scores of clergymen in the pulpit," he continues, 
"numberless politicians in Congress, had made no 
other use of their leisure than to point out step by step 
every succeeding stage of the coming decline. The 
catastrophe was no longer far away, it was actually 
about them, they touched and felt it at every moment 
of their lives. Society held together merely because it 
knew not what else to do." There was a violent attack 



i8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

on the courts, which were assailed — ^how familiar it 
sounds! — as "corrupt," "irresponsible to the people" 
and "creatures of the aristocrats." 

LABOR QUESTION BORN IN 1 829 

The Labor Question, as well as Revolution, had 
come into prominence by 1829, when another period 
of unrest set in, and many problems and demands 
which we are accustomed to consider new came to the 
front at that time. Conditions in the industrial field 
were such as would cause horror throughout the whole 
country to-day, and there was widespread misery. 

This brought out not only demands for reform, but 
those other demands which Radicals always take such 
opportunities to put forth. Among those which were 
made were the entirely modern ones of "abolition of 
wage slavery," "the right to the soil" and "the aboli- 
tion of monopolies." 

A Labor Party was formed by workingmen in New 
York in 1829, and Henry George and the expropria- 
tion of land were both anticipated in the opening para- 
graph of its platform: "The appropriation of the soil 
of the state to private and exclusive possession is emi- 
nently and barbarously unjust." In Article 3 "the 
hereditary transmission of wealth" is declared a cause 
of poverty, distress and misery, and inequitable' — a 
proposition that one of our best informed writers re- 
cently said was one of the few really new things in 
the present agitation. 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 19 

In 1832 labor delegates from six states attended a 
convention in Boston at which the "evils of monopoly" 
were declaimed against, and "corporations" were at- 
tacked. There were many strikes, labor unions were 
prosecuted in the courts for conspiracy against Capi- 
tal, and the labor leaders assailed the courts in terms 
differing in no way from those we hear at present. 
Boycotting, picketing, and even a movement manifest- 
ing every symptom of the sympathetic strike, were all 
tried. 

There was another outburst of Bolshevism about 
the time of the Civil War, when W. H. Silvis founded 
the "National Workingman's Union" to obtain "com- 
mon ownership of all lands and instruments of labor" 
through the ballot "or, if not, by sterner means." This 
claimed 600,000 members when at the height of its 
power in 1870, but the horrors of the Paris Commune 
reacted here, and it faded rapidly, giving way to less 
radical organizations. 

Chief of these was the Knights of Labor, a secret 
order that admitted workers of all trades, with a plat- 
form that was radical but far from revolutionary. 
This grew between 1874 and 1886 to a strength of 
above a million but was invaded by the Reds, and 
divided, a small fraction going to the Socialists, and 
the majority into the ranks of the crafts unions in 
the American Federation of Labor, which inherited its 
power. 



20 LABOR AND REVOLT 

QUICK EBB OF THE RED TIDES 

These instances might be multiplied, but a few are 
enough to show that the present crisis presents much 
that is in common, and little that is not, with earlier 
disturbances which came, grew menacing, and were 
successfully passed without revolution or permanent 
ills and with ultimately great benefits. They should 
not be taken as minimizing in any way the dangers 
which confront civilization to-day, but they surely do 
offer a comfort and an antidote to panic, for each has 
been succeeded by a period of calm and prosperity, 
and every attempt at Social Revolution either here or 
abroad has passed — often indeed not without blood 
and dust and terrible costs — ^but always without a 
tithe of the disasters that have been feared and even 
predicted by men who seemed wise and farsighted. 

Already the Bolshevist agitation that swept Europe 
in the wake of Lenin's success seems to be subsiding, 
too. In Germany Carl Legien, head of a federated 
union of 6,500,000 members, declared as early as Sep- 
tember, 19 1 9, only six months after the Spartacan 
riots all over the country, that the crisis was past and 
that German workmen were settling down to increase 
production, and to make the best of conditions with- 
out further important disturbance. In both France 
and Britain the fall of 19 19 brought a definite recovery 
from the violent agitations and grave unrest of the 
summer. There is as much reassurance for America 
in this contemporary history as in that which is older. 



BOLSHEVISM, A PERIODIC MIRAGE 21 

PROGRESS THE BEST MEDICINE 

Not that the problems of social readjustment and 
the demand for greater returns and better conditions 
for the workers vanish. It is simply that the attempt 
to solve them all through violent Revolution gives 
way to a saner view, and men of all classes unite to 
find the answers in careful thought through co-opera- 
tion and good-will. If those methods should fail — 
if good-will and co-operation do not presently bring 
such results as to assure the masses of the workers that 
there is more than a vague hope of betterment for 
them, the danger of violence will return in greatly in- 
creased measure. 

Those problems of justice to Labor have hardly 
changed in the past thirty years. During all that time 
men of vision have understood clearly the crisis that 
was coming. It was in the late '80s that E. B. Box, 
in closing his work on philosophy, made this com- 
ment: 

The student, as he lays down this little voliame, showld 
he by chance take up a newspaper, will inevitably light on 
accounts of great strikes, of armaments, of the struggle for 
colonies called imperial expansion, of vast popular revolu- 
tionary movements, etc., all of which point to one thing, 
when followed out in all their bearings — the steady approach 
of the great class struggle. Let him ponder on this, and 
bethink himself of the part even he, or his children, may be 
forced to take in the resolution of that great living contra- 
diction — ^the contradiction between individual and society — 
expressed in what we term Modern Civilization. 



22 LABOR AND REVOLT 

This problem, evolutionary if it is not to be revolu- 
tionary, v^ill remain with us when the Red agitation 
has spent itself. For it is no less true that each of 
these great eras of unrest has passed without the de- 
struction of Society that so many have feared, than it 
is that each has brought important alterations in the 
machinery of Civilization which we now recognize as 
good. 

For the present generation the great questions that 
face us in the era upon which we are now entering 
are not only what these changes are to be, but with 
how little cost and how little dislocation of the 
machinery upon which our comforts depend they may 
be accomplished. 

The answer will depend largely on the attitude, on 
the sanity and fairness, of a power which has long 
been felt a little below the surface of our lives. It is 
only now emerging into full consciousness and has not 
yet attained its full strength — the power of the Labor 
Giant. 



CHAPTER II 

OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 

New era coming in America — Labor Giant to dominate it — 
His power already apparent — His strength, weaknesses and 
appetite — His blindness and gullibility — His confusion of 
ideas — Wealth and money — What constitutes the cost of 
living — The rising standards — His demand for the "whole 
product" — Conflicting interest and equal rights. 

An era, in the history of the world or of any coun- 
try, is marked by two things: a ruHng power and a 
ruHng purpose. The appearance of these two things 
from among the many powers and purposes which 
combine and struggle in any society — their emergence 
from obscurity into dominance — always is accom- 
panied by fundamental changes. Either the power 
or the purpose may sometimes show itself without the 
other, though usually both pass on and off the stage 
together. But always, in the confused scene which is 
contemporary history to all of us, the coming and 
going of both are so befogged with struggles and with 
the dust of conflicts that we can hardly guess what is 
taking place till the results reveal the process. 

There have been three such eras in the history of the 
United States. The first may be called that of the 
nation-builders: the men who won our independence, 

23 



24 LABOR AND REVOLT 

forged the union, and pushed our frontiers to the 
Golden Gate. Even before this era passed there came 
on the stage the giant figure of King Cotton, and for 
years, through this Giant, the South ruled. Its pur- 
pose was the preservation and extension of slavery. 
While this era v^as passing in the blood and smoke of 
the Civil War a new one appeared — that of Industrial- 
ism, and for decades the nation was dominated by the 
captains of industry, while its whole purpose was 
directed to building and organizing our vast produc- 
tive system. That era, too, was ending when the 
World War began, and men everywhere recognized 
that we stood on the verge of a new one, though there 
was no agreement who would rule, or what would be 
the purpose of the coming years. 

The hasty developments of the war, little as they 
affected the fundamentals of American life, neverthe- 
less have thrown a light on the situation which makes 
it easy to-day to see both the new ruler and the new 
purpose. Perhaps the purpose should come first, for it 
already had begun to rise out of the haze of politics 
and agitation long before the power of the new ruler 
became clear. » 



ABOLITION OF POVERTY THE GOAL 

The purpose of the era now opening will be the 
establishment of a greater material equality and the 
working out of such social changes as will assure the 
great majority, if not all of our people, that they are 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 25 

getting the full share of wealth to which their work 
and their abilities entitle them and in every case 
enough for sane and healthful livelihood. 

The new ruler, the power that will decide every 
question, that will be deferred to on every hand, and 
that will guide the working out of this purpose, will 
be — it already is — the Labor Giant. We have seen 
this new power, though it is only a fifth organized, is 
in conflict within itself, and is without a clear or far- 
thought programme — already we have seen it take con- 
trol of our Congress and force the hand of the Presi- 
dent when the railroad brotherhoods presented the de- 
mands which were enacted in the Adamson law. We 
have seen it dictate war policies, compel tremendous 
governmental activities and bring the power of the 
administration at Washington as an ally to help it 
drive bargains on its own terms with employers who 
a few years ago were supreme. 

THE DEMAND FOR A PLASTER SAINT 

Its strength is increasing fast. There is resentment 
against this, of course, partly because it is new, but 
for other reasons too. For it means minority rule. 
It is almost wholly selfish. It is, so far, short sighted 
and opportunist. And undoubtedly its threats to Con- 
gress and the President have been undiplomatic. 

Yet — look back over our three past eras. Each 
ruler, the pioneer, the slave power and "Wall Street" 
was a minority. Each forced the hand of the govern- 



26 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ment by threats. Each worked for selfish purposes. 
Each seized for its own advantage all the riches of the 
nation on which it could lay its hands. 

Yet out of each there came, though sometimes at 
high cost, progress and prosperity and greater good 
for the nation, as a whole. 

As for Labor's open threats against the government 
— America has a traditional liking for shirt-sleeve 
diplomacy, and in spite of all the storms of denuncia- 
tion that were loosed at the railway men's perform- 
ance, the nation seems to have been in general as will- 
ing to have labor leaders sitting in the House gallery, 
as it was to have Senators called to a private wire 
from Wall street to take orders from Big Business. 
We Americans do not like to bother too much with our 
government, so long as it does not bother us too much. 
We know we are ruled by a minority, and we do not 
seem to care greatly what that minority may be, so 
long as it behaves even fairly well. 

The Labor Giant is perhaps a little more simply 
human in his faults and virtues and weaknesses and 
strengths than were our late overlords, the Industrial 
Captains. He comes to the throne at a time of pecu- 
liar stress and danger, and his reign will be beset with 
pitfalls. It is to portray him, to map some of these 
dangers that he may lead us into, and especially to 
show the great effort that is now being made by the 
revolutionary enemies of civilization to exploit his 
power for the destruction of our whole society, with 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 27 

its mental as well as physical wealth and heritages, 
that this book is written. 

The book is necessarily limited largely to the eco- 
nomic aspects of the situation. There is not space 
enough in a single volume to discuss the possible spir- 
itual and cultural advantages which might be gained, 
even though the economic structure were weakened, or 
to attempt to weigh the relative values of prosperity 
and of moral growth. But since there must be pros- 
perity before there can be any wide cultural, if not 
spiritual, development, there is every reason for giving 
the most careful attention to the economic factors. 

A BLIND AND HUNGRY GIANT 

Labor's besetting sin, like that of all rulers — indeed, 
like that of all of us — is selfishness. He intends to 
feather his own nest, and the rest of the world will 
come out second best. The world, however, has lived 
through this kind of thing ever since history began, 
and though each new phase causes panic at first, the 
necessary adjustments have always been made without 
disaster. America can afford any reasonable price. 
Certainly the selfishnesses and blunders of our past 
rulers, which have been many, have not been able to 
check progress for long, and there is little reason to 
fear the faults of the new ruler. 

With two exceptions: 

In the first place, it has so happened that our for- 
mer rulers* greed could not pass the point which would 



28 LABOR AND REVOLT 

threaten the material basis of Civilization, the exist- 
ence and efficiency of our machinery of production. 
They could not swallow all they could take, and 
though they inflicted injustice and misery, the bulk of 
their loot has remained a heritage to the nation, and 
is used by the nation to-day. This is not true of Labor. 
That Giant can swallow all he can get, the whole 
structure of Civilization, as well as its product, and 
leave nothing. 

In the second place the Labor Giant is a blind crea- 
ture, easily confused and poorly taught. Society, 
which means all of us, must share the blame for this, 
and if he goes wrong, pay a heavy penalty. Because 
he is thus, a battle is now going on for a new exploita- 
tion of Labor, for rule over the new ruler, which 
holds the utmost menace to all that America has stood 
for. For behind Labor's vast bulk, and hidden in his 
garments, goading him to excesses and seeking to 
make him its tool for the overthrow of all that Amer- 
icanism means, stands the bloody-handed form of Red 
Revolution. 

REDS CLOUD THOUGHT WITH WORDS 

The Labor Giant is not alone in this confusion and 
uncertainty, for society has been thrown into disorder 
by the Reds' attack and does not measure the danger, 
gauge its direction, nor recognize its friends or its 
enemies with anything like accuracy. The skillful prop- 
aganda put out by the Reds, the easy going laziness 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 29 

which has refused to face the problem till it became 
acute, and the employers' fear of laying their cards on 
the table and squarely meeting the challenge of Labor's 
demands in the past few years, have left a confusion 
of thought and a confusion of language which make it 
difficult to reach a solid foundation anywhere. 

Through all the modern discussions run such terms 
as "production," "wealth," "capital" and "labor," yet 
it is hard to find two persons who will agree on what 
any one of them means, or on what its function is. 
This is a distinct advantage to those who are planting 
the seeds of disorder. The success of the Red propa- 
ganda hangs largely on shiftiness and evasion. Those 
of the agitators who are intelligent enough to think 
clearly — and many are merely tools of an unseen and 
highly intelligent power behind — find it easier to make 
these shifts and evasions if they are permitted to use 
language which means different things to different 
men. 



THE MIRAGE OF FIAT WEALTH 

First of these confusions, perhaps, if anything can 
be first in such a welter, is the belief that wealth is 
money, cash — that somehow, by adding more to the 
amount of money in the country we shall all be better 
off; that dollars, rather than clothing and machinery 
and food and shelter and artistry can measure pros- 
perity. Even the great depreciation in the value of 
money in the last few years has failed to clear this 



30 LABOR AND REVOLT 

misconception, though we have seen our standard 
change till it is as if we had tried to measure miles 
with a ruler only six inches to the foot. 

This is the mirage of printed money — the old, old 
idea that a bank, or a government, or somebody or 
something can actually create wealth off-hand. It has 
been a favorite delusion with mankind ever since John 
Law first invented printed currency, tried to build an 
empire out of paper, and bankrupted half Europe in 
the famous Mississippi Bubble. 

Here in America we have seen it in the "shin-plas- 
ters" that preceded the Civil War; after that war in 
the demands of the "greenbackers" — grandfathers of 
to-day*s Non-Partisan Leaguers — later in the Free Sil- 
ver craze, and it is now revived as the basis of the 
most hare-brained revolutionary economics, and given 
as the answer to all the practical objections that may 
be raised against them. 

The theory is so simple! A dollar is worth so 
much. Let us double the number of dollars and we 
will all be twice as well off! The printing press can 
do it! 

This is the first of the revolutionary smoke-screens. 
It is a good one, and it has blinded many fairly intelli- 
gent men. It is doing so still. But the laws of eco- 
nomics, which decree that there can be no wealth that 
is not produced in sweat and labor, are working, and 
what we to-day call the high cost of living is nothing 
more than the practical application of the very prin- 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 31 

ciple of the "fifty-cent dollar" for which Bryan pled 
so eloquently. 

Surely there is no longer need to argue that wealth 
is not money but things — products, improvements, 
machinery, food and clothing, the means of life and 
health and comfort and inspiration and of more pro- 
duction, and that money is merely a very elastic and 
untrustworthy yardstick with which they can, in a 
way, be measured. 

A SCRAMBLED PROBLEM 

With this confusion, and a part of it, has come the 
misunderstanding as to what constitutes the cost of 
living. It has been generally recognized that the at- 
tempt to measure it in dollars was misleading, and 
almost equally misleading has been the effort to esti- 
mate it in percentages. The trouble has been, of 
course, that the only measure used was money — either 
the cheap and slippery-valued dollar of to-day, or the 
much more expensive dollar of 1914. The real cost of 
living is the amount of work that is necessary to 
obtain the means of a given standard of livelihood. 
It is a matter of labor measured against purchasing 
power. On this real cost the government issues no 
figures, though economists, by a system of weighing 
and calculation arrive at estimates which are approxi- 
mately accurate. 

No such figures are available for the years of the 
World War, but there are indications that they will 



32 LABOR AND REVOLT 

show an actual decrease, instead of a rise, in the real 
cost of living for workers even during that period; 
will show that men actually do live better for the same 
amount of work. 

For the United States, as a whole, according to 
statistics compiled by Professor Willford Isbell King 
in his "Wealth and Income of the People of the 
United States,'' the average wage for each person em- 
ployed increased in purchasing power from an index 
value of 147 to 401 between 1850 and 1910. This 
means that a day's work in 19 10 would buy more than 
two and one-half times as much as in 1850; in other 
words, that the cost of living has decreased three- 
fifths, so that in 19 10 the real cost — the cost in work — 
was only 40 per cent of what it was in 1850. 

In fact, this is a process that has gone on through 
all time. There has been a steady and violent decrease 
in the value of money, though an irregular one, so that 
measured by a silver or gold money standard there 
has been a tremendous increase in living cost. 

Yet, in fact, in real cost, the labor-price of a living 
has decreased as steadily and as violently. Stephen 
Leacock, of McGill University, estimates that the aver- 
age worker to-day produces from thirty to forty times 
as much as before the era of industrialism. He doubts 
that the worker's share has increased in anything like 
proportion, though there are statistics which seem to 
show that he is wrong and that the worker's share 
has increased relatively as well. But whatever may 
be the fact as to that, it is clear that the worker is now 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 33 

getting many times as much, in the way of living, as 
he did half a century ago. 

Workers, especially, will deny this. They feel the 
pinch of making ends meet as sharply as ever, and they 
see the size of their grocery and milk and rent bills in- 
creasing by jumps. Often, indeed, when the wages of 
one section of workers lag behind the rest, that section 
for a time will be faced by a rising cost and there was 
a slight general rise between 1890 and 19 10, the 
reasons for which will be discussed later. 

But the fact is clearly proven that, for the average 
man, the real cost of living has shown a steady and 
great decrease throughout all time, and that there has 
never been any actual increase for more than a few 
years. 

DISEASE IS HEALTH IN DISGUISE 

The cause of Labor's complaints lies in the rising 
standard of living, a very different thing. That 
standard has risen faster than the cost of living has 
fallen. This is the cause of many and bitter com- 
plaints from employers, who see in it extravagance and 
wastefulness. Yet it is one of the most healthful of 
diseases, so to speak, in that it is the spur that keeps 
men at work, and makes their work better and better. 

It has been suggested already that the men who are 
directing the Bolshevist agitation like to be able to use 
words and formulae that will mean different things to 
different men. They have several such, and perhaps 



34 LABOR AND REVOLT 

the most valuable, for them, is their formula that 
"Labor shall have all the wealth it produces." 

This is the basis of the demands, not only of the 
Bolshevists, but of the many varieties of semi-Bol- 
shevist agitators, that Labor should take over the full 
control of industry and that it should seize all accumu- 
lated wealth. It is the basis of their charge that any 
wealth not in labor's hands has been stolen through 
^'exploitation." It is a formula which when employed 
to inflame ignorant and simple men, becomes convinc- 
ing and effective in influencing them to wild resent- 
ment and prepares them to use any violence to regain 
what they consider their own. Yet it is a formula 
which if Labor's share in production is fairly meas- 
ured — ^and that share is far less than the whole — 
states only the simplest justice. 

The forms under which this demand appears are 
legion, and it runs all through the revolutionary propa- 
ganda directed toward Labor. In its simplest form it 
is this: "Labor alone produces wealth, labor alone 
should have it." Often there is added the formula, 
^'without rent, interest or profits" — known in the 
socialistic jargon as "the three rents." It was first 
stated by Marx, who modified it by his doctrine that 
each individual's receipts should be those of "average 
social labor" rather than of his own work, but most 
propagandists omit the modification. 

Here are three examples of it in modern propa- 
ganda, taken at random from a mass: 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 35 

The working ciass is the only useful class that is neces- 
sary to society . . . until the working class is able to take 
possession and control the machinery, premises and material 
of production right from the capitalists' hands, and use that 
control to distribute the product entirely among the workers. 
(From "The One Big Union Bulletin," April 25, 1919.) 

The purpose of socialism is "the self-employment of all 
who are willing to do useful work — ^by means of their joint 
ownership of the things the workers must collectively use in 
production, each to receive the value of his labor undimin- 
ished by rent, interest or profits. (From "The Slander of 
the Toilers," by George R. Kirkpatrick.) 

British capitalists in 1913 had twenty billions of dollars 
invested outside the British Isles. . . . Twenty billions of 
machinery and resources owned by capitalists of one coun- 
try ; served by workers on foreign soil — slaves to the absentee 
landlords who reap where they have not sowed. While 
these twenty billions and other billions like them remain, 
the world cannot be free! (From "Twenty Billions," an 
article by Scott Nearing, published in many radical papers.) 

There has been no single idea used with more deadly 
effect by the revolutionary propagandists. Yet its 
meaning is so uncertain that twenty men hearing it 
can get as many different impressions. 



DOES SWEAT MEASURE ALL LABOR 

What, in the first place, is "labor" ? To the Oregon 
woodsman or the Finnish miner ''labor" is work with 
the hands — to them brain-work, invention, executive 
direction, selling, are not ''labor." To them the for- 
mula means that the manual worker, and he only, 



36 LABOR AND REVOLT 

should get all wealth. Many better educated radicals 
will defend this view, but will modify it to admit that 
"Labor," having all the product, will then have to hire 
brains, as Capital now hires them. Yet, if "Labor" be 
defined to include all the usefulness that comes from 
ability and training, and the Socialistic definition that 
Capital is "hoarded labor" be accepted, what is there 
in the formula that makes it a possible basis for revo- 
lutionary agitation or the disruption of society? For 
under those definitions brains and Capital are both 
producers, and entitled to reward. 

The first part of the radical formula, that Labor 
produces all wealth, denies any share in production to 
Capital. There is less difficulty in defining Capital: 
''those products of man's efforts used in the further 
production of wealth" has been generally agreed upon. 
The average worker accepts without question the idea 
that he is the sole producer. It has the merit of self- 
flattery, and he can, besides, see that without his own 
efforts the machine he controls would be useless. 

THE PRODUCTIVE VALUE OF TOOLS 

Yet there is much to be said for Capital as a pro- 
ducer. Even when it is admitted that many of the 
great accumulations of wealth have no adequate basis 
in service rendered, the question of their share in pro- 
duction — not of their moral or ethical right to exist — 
is not touched. In fact, while the Labor is essential, 
and could maintain itself alone, and while Capital, 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 37 

reduced to its working clothes of machinery and tools 
would be useless without Labor to manipulate them, 
it is still true that Capital multiplies the productive 
power of labor almost beyond computation. 

Prof. Leacock's estimate that production has been 
increased thirty to forty times gives the credit to 
machinery, which means Capital. In many cases the 
multiple is much greater. A single turret lathe, for 
instance, will turn out many hundred times the num- 
ber of finished pieces that the best mechanic could pro- 
duce with chisel and file. 

Revolution loves to speak of the capitalist as a 
coupon-clippei;, and absentee landlord, someone far 
away who draws money toward the earning of which 
he has contributed nothing. The abuses of Capital are 
beyond denial, and this picture is often partly true. 
Yet the coupon-clipper is always represented in what 
is produced. The New England spinster with a few 
bonds of some railroad is represented by the locomo- 
tive, or the little piece of track for which her money 
paid. Another capitalist has provided a loom, or a 
machine tool, or some other means of production, 
which has multiplied the results of some worker's 
efforts. 

Is not the thrift that gathered money together 
worthy of some reward? The world so far has offered 
no assured return for any effort so high as that which 
comes as the result of saving and of making tools. 
Any one may prove this for himself very easily by 



38 LABOR AND REVOLT 

attempting to drive a nail without a hammer, or to 
make a garden without a hoe ! 

In spite of all the abuses which have arisen under 
Capitalism, it is by such thrift, and its translation into 
means of increased production, that the greater part of 
our vast industrial structure has been built up. That 
there have been exploitation of labor and thefts and 
extortion on the part of capitalists does not detract 
from the tremendous service that Capital has done 
society, and still does. Capital is, in truth, the stor- 
age battery of Civilization, a trust fund that cashes 
sight drafts to meet the needs of society. 

Another term that occurs in the revolutionary for- 
mula is ''product." Here definition almost completely 
fails. What is a product ? Or, more properly at what 
point has the production of any article been com- 
pleted? Is it when that thing leaves the factory, or 
when it is delivered to your home ? On the answer to 
this question will depend the reward that Radicalism 
claims for Labor. To the agitator working his for- 
mula into men's minds as a seed for Revolution, the 
"product" is the selling price, and the worker should 
get it all. Yet a product is of no actual value till it 
reaches the consumer, and labor must share with some- 
one else all the cost that comes between factory and 
destination. 

So much discussion has been given to these defini- 
tions because without an understanding of the parts 
that Labor, Capital and production play in modern 
society no just estimate can be made of the fairness of 



OUR NEW, BLIND RULER 39 

the complaints of either Labor or the Reds, or of their 
demands. The whole problem and its solution hang 
upon the relationship between those factors. 

America often turns to Abraham Lincoln in the 
assurance that she will find wisdom concerning the 
problems that perplex her. His words on this ques- 
tion of Labor and Capital are worth remembering: 

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is 
only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor 
had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and 
deserves much the higher consideration. 

But he also said: 

Capital has its rights which are as worthy of protection 
as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is and prob- 
ably always will be a relation between capital and labor 
producing mutual benefits. 

And on the whole subject which is now being agi- 
tated as a ground for Revolution, he said to a com- 
mittee of workingmen in New York on March 24, 
1864: 

The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the 
family relation, should be the one uniting all working peo- 
ple of all nations, and tongues and kindreds. Nor should 
this lead to a war upon property or the owners of property. 
Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; prop- 
erty is a positive good in the world. That some should be 
rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is a 
just encouragement to industry and enterprise. 



40 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of an- 
other, but let him work diligently and build one for him- 
self, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe 
from violence when built. 

It is along the line of these principles that justice 
in industry must be sought. 



CHAPTER III 

FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 

Aspiration in the present discontent— Immediate causes of the 
outburst: war and its after effects, opportunities during 
reconstruction, high cost of living, swollen profits of blood- 
money, unequal wage increases, desperation at forced lower- 
ing of living standar 3, curtailment of free speech, the 
example of Russia — Surface indications that seem to make 
discontent unreasonable — The deeper facts: living standards 
still too low, ingrained fears not met, the sense of injustice, 
the wider outlook and ambitions. 

There is a spiritual quality in the present unrest, 
especially among American workers, that gives to it 
much of the significance of the Protestant Reforma- 
tion, of the long English struggles for liberty, of the 
American Revolution of 1776 and of the great French 
Revolution. There is abroad a widespread feehng 
that the time has come for another long stride toward 
the end of inequality. 

It is perhaps because Labor — real Labor, and not 
the screaming propagandists who claim to speak for 
it — is inapt at speech that this spiritual quahty has 
been so little recognized. Labor has had to express 
itself in economic terms of wages and hours and shop 
committees, as the American Revolution expressed 
itself in fighting a penny tax on tea. 

41 



42 LABOR AND REVOLT^ 

But behind this is a far deeper thing and no one who 
is much in contact with Labor, and who has the sym- 
pathy to feel below the surface things that are not 
seen, can fail to know it. This is the strength of the 
present awakening of the Labor Giant — and the weak- 
ness. It is one of those fundamental impulses that 
must be satisfied. And it will be. 

But because Labor is half-blind, because it does not 
quite know what it wants nor at all how to get it, and 
because it lacks education and the power of construc- 
tive criticism. Labor is often misled by the promise- 
spouting agitators of Revolution, which seek to use 
it as their tool. 

This spiritual unrest is a far bigger thing than 
Labor. We have seen it for years in other fields; in 
the rebellion against accepted forms, forms which have 
in many ways become standardized, cramped and re- 
strictive, seen it in music and painting and poetry and 
other arts. It has appeared in political experiments 
and in religious upheavals. 

In the case of Labor its deep significance, back of 
the tactical demands for wages and hours, is for a 
greater equality in social and spiritual things, for inde- 
pendence from the control and domination of other 
men, for freedom to live and develop in one's own 
way, for recognition by all society of personal dignity 
and value — in short, that Labor, and this means each 
laborer, shall cease to be considered a "commodity'* 
and be acknowledged a man. 

This is far from being the only cause of unrest, but 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 43 

it is so important, so fundamental, that no one can 
begin to understand the present situation who does 
not see all events affecting Labor as a part of the spir- 
itual unrest, whatever their appearance may be. Greed 
and laziness and irresponsibility are there, too, and in 
large measure, taking every advantage of the camou- 
flage and opportunity that aspiration affords. But no 
matter what mistakes or what clumsy statements or 
what wild and exaggerated claims may be made, this 
is the thing that gives color and courage to the pur- 
poses of the great mass of American workers, and 
this will bring them back to sanity and stability in the 
end, even though it be only after many vagaries. 

This aspiration, of course, is nothing new. It has 
existed throughout history, among ever-growing 
numbers, and it will continue so long as there is health 
and life in society. There are many things which have 
combined to bring it to a crisis at this particular time, 
and which will keep it acute till considerable progress 
has been made. 



THE WHOLE WORLD 

Chief, of course, are the war and its after-effects. 
The whole world is tired, worn, nerve shocked, and 
Labor no less than the rest of us. There have been 
over-strain, many disappointed hopes, much loss and 
friction and irritation, the reaction from the folly of 
some of the extreme promises made in the propaganda 
put out to keep the world keyed to the war-pitch, and 



44 LABOR AND REVOLT 

all the effects of high prices, big profits made by some 
employers, and opportunities for class and personal 
gain offered by the general dislocation of society and 
of industry. 

A director of a state labor department thus sums 
up the situation: 

War tends to throw almost all individuals in a nation out 
of their settled rut of mental habits. The restlessness and 
lack of restraint which so results in the industrial world 
naturally leads not only to changes of occupation, but by 
the very fact that the mass of workingmen are "out of 
the rut" makes them more easily influenced and handled by 
those in authority in the labor ranks — men who have been 
waiting for just such an opportunity. Second, the restrain- 
ing powers of the employer become weakened in time of 
war. The legal maxim that "in times of war the laws are 
silent" is as applicable to industrial laws as to political laws. 
The employe feels free to do more as he chooses. As a result 
he may become a potential or actual agitator, or even a 
striker. 

In fact, one of the leading factors in bringing the 
tension to the present pitch is that Labor sees in the 
after-war conditions opportunities to achieve things 
which it has long desired. It has been much blamed 
for pushing its campaign at this particular time, ac- 
cused of selfishness, of sacrificing the good of the 
nation to its own ends, and of attempting to make cap- 
ital out of the public misfortune. 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 45 

THE GIANT EDUCATED IN MISERY 

All this is true. Yet the Labor Giant has much of 
humane justice on its side. Through long years he 
has had to fight for all he got. During the war he 
made real sacrifices in setting aside the much greater 
opportunities that were then offered for his own ad- 
vancement. He sees no sign that anyone intends to 
recompense him in any important way for those sac- 
rifices. He knows, in a bitter way which other people 
cannot hope to realize, that the things he is fighting 
for involve the very structure of homes, the health and 
future of wives and children, his own safety in every 
way. And he knows, too, that it may be many years 
before another such opportunity as the present one 
returns. 

Many of his demands are unreasonable and must 
be fought, but only those with a fundamental lack of 
understanding or lack of humanity can find it in their 
hearts to add rancor to the struggle. 

One of the things that has affected him most has 
been the high cost of living. There was no way of 
determining with any accuracy whether or not wage 
increases met the increased costs and a natural preju- 
dice made men feel more pinched than they really 
were. 

Another thing that stimulated labor disturbance was 
the knowledge that many employers were making 
enormous profits. In a great shipyard strike this was 
frankly given as one of the reasons for going out — 



46 LABOR AND REVOLT 

the workers intended to have a share of the "melon." 
The sudden appearance of "war miUionaires," of 
whom some two thousand were added to the Federal 
tax Hsts between 19 17 and 19 19, supported the behef. 
And it was in Hne with another complaint — that 
there was widespread and conscience-less profiteering. 
No denials, even by official investigators, could con- 
vince Labor that most of the increase in prices was not 
due to excessive profit-making by merchants of all 
classes. Resentment flamed high and in many cases 
it was fully justified. But not in all. Every man had 
to have more money as prices went up, and this jus- 
tified his taking increased profits, if he depended on 
profits, as fully as labor's increased wage was justified. 

THE UNIVERSAL GAME OF GRAB 

There was much nonsense talked on the subject, of 
course. Price raising in itself is not profiteering, 
which may well be defined as taking advantage of un- 
usual conditions to force prices beyond what a fair 
return for services rendered justifies. This practice 
of charging "all the traffic will bear" is one that is 
always violently denounced by the victim, but as con- 
stantly defended by those who practice it, usually on 
the ground of poor times past or to come. So the 
farmer who holds back his produce or who burns his 
cotton, and the workman who takes advantage of un- 
settled conditions or great need to get a higher wage 
than his product earns, are as truly profiteers as the 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 47 

men who force up the prices of milk and bread. Thus 
we have workers denouncing farmers and farmers de- 
nouncing workers, and there is much justice and much 
misunderstanding in both accusations. 

That profiteering is an ancient evil, naturally, is no 
comfort to the man who suffers from it, and both dur- 
ing the war and since there have been millions of 
workers whose pay did not keep pace with their in- 
creased outgo, so that there was an actual decrease in 
their living standards. Here is a description of the 
lives of these people, given by one of the best of the 
labor leaders, Marsden G. Scott: 

In millions of homes the standard of living did not increase, 
for the very good reason that the contents of the pay en- 
velope were inadequate to meet the increased prices de- 
manded by the profiteers. One cannot squeeze blood out of 
a turnip, and the inevitable result was that pre-war standards 
of living were reduced. 

Old clothes were patched, old dresses were mended, old 
shoes were sent to the cobbler, infrequent amusements were 
dispensed with, all the little luxuries were abandoned, every 
household economy was exercised, and even then the prob- 
lem of trying to make both ends meet became a hopeless 
daily tragedy, a heart-breaking, never ending nightmare from 
which there was no escape. The world will never know the 
full extent of the sacrifices that have been made by the 
wives and children in the homes of the wage earners of 
America in the past four years. Many interesting articles 
have appeared in newspapers and periodicals in which the 
wages paid to some shipyard worker or munitions employe 
were set forth. There was human interest in the story of 
the brawny riveter who drew down fabulous sums in the 



48 LABOR AND REVOLT 

cost-plus shipyard. But no one cared to read of the 
struggles, the sacrifices and the poverty in the home of the 
mechanic working for a pre-war wage. Yet somehow these 
men scraped together the price of a few thrift stamps or 
war-savings certificates. God only knows how some of 
them managed to pay the weekly installments on the 
Liberty Bonds for which they subscribed. But they 'did it — 
only to be forced to part with them at the Shylock's discount 
later on. 

This picture is in no way exaggerated as a descrip- 
tion of the lives in millions of homes, and not alone 
those of the laboring classes. For the great numbers 
of clerks and ofhce helpers the average increase in 
wages till the end of 1919 was only a little over 25 
per cent, while the cost of living went up to about 80 
y per cent. For civil servants, policemen, firemen, mail- 
\ carriers, and the like, the increase in wages provided 
\ by the various governments averaged even less. All 
these millions suffered from a cutting of their stand- 
ard of living as much as a third. Finally, and to cap 
the climax, very shortly after the war ended there 
were many threats to reduce wages, and in perhaps a 
fifth of America's factories cuts were actually made or 
attempted. All this helped drive Labor to fight. 

THE HORROR OF IMPOVERISHING POVERTY 

It would be almost impossible to overstate the pow- 
erful effect for discontent, even for desperation, that is 
created by such a forced lowering of the standard of 
living. It is bad enough with the well-to-do. Even 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 49 

when the privation does not extend to food or clothing 
or shelter or any necessity of life, there is a loss of 
social standing, of respectability, of position, that is 
galling beyond measure. Does anyone think this is 
less for the man making $1000 a year than for him 
who has been making $5000 or $50,000? 

With the workers there must be added often actual 
privation, insufficient food, shoddy clothing, loss of 
amusements, risk of health for wife and his children, 
and cutting off of chances for education and therefore 
■Cor future advancement of the little ones. Against 
this any man will fight, and will be backed by his wife 
to the utmost. If their struggles often take unwise 
and regrettable forms, who shall blame them? 

One more thing has helped irritate labor almost 
beyond endurance and this has been the curtailment of 
freedom of speech, the irritant being not so much the 
law itself as the way in which its enforcement has 
been twisted by some officials in sympathy with reac- 
tionary employers. Labor has felt, and often justly, 
that it was not only treated unfairly, but that it was 
being denied the very right to complain, to ask for re- 
dress, or to discuss means of betterment. It has 
believed that it was intelligent enough to be trusted to 
listen to even the wildest anti-American propaganda, 
and decide for itself. It resented being protected, if 
that were the object of the law, almost as much as it 
resented being repressed. 

A final stimulus was the example of Russia. Not 
all workers by any means are deceived about what is 



so LABOR AND REVOLT 

going on there, but hundreds of thousands are. Their 
deep distrust of the "capitalistic press" has made them 
impervious to the facts when pubHshed. They see in 
Russia a country ruled by folk like themselves, and 
with all the social and political and economic restric- 
tions which gall the workers here, subject to their own 
orders. 

All these are the immediate causes which have 
brought the unrest to white-heat just at this time. To 
many they seem trivial, or at least transient. These 
people expect that the trouble will subside shortly, and 
believe old conditions will return. They point out that 
Labor was never better off, either in America or in 
any other country, and feel that agitation and strikes 
in such circumstances are foolish, if not unpatriotic 
and practically criminal. Many would be glad to have 
them made crimes by law. 

STATISTICS VERSUS NEEDS 

The statistics of the situation support their view. 
Labor never was better off. The increase in the aver- 
age wage-earner's income from $204 in 1850 to $507 
in 19 10, and of purchasing power from 147 to 401 
have already been mentioned. During the same period 
such figures as are available indicate an increase of 
more than 50 per cent in the average wealth of the 
the poorest classes. Finally: in America the poorest 
65 per cent of the population, which includes prac- 
tically all the manual workers, is more than 100 per 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 51 

cent better off than those In any other country, tne fig- 
ures, according to Professor King, being: Wisconsin 
in 1900 (taken as a typical American state) , 100; Prus- 
sia in 1908, 40; France in 1909, 49; United Kingdom 
in 1909, 35. Moreover, the difference between the 
wealth of this class and that of the richer people is 
much less in America than in the countries named. 



A FULLER DINNER-PAIL 

In spite of Labor's denials, all the figures available 
indicate that Labor has not suffered, as a whole, from 
the increase in the cost of living since 1914. No statis- 
tics on this subject are conclusive, but a careful com- 
pilation was completed in the fall of 19 19 by the 
National Industrial Conference Board, which has 
established a reputation for fair and accurate work 
along this line. These figures cover the changes in 
four and a half years up to October i, 19 19. 

During that period the cost of living increase is 
put at 61.3 per cent, and the increase of earnings by 
trades as follows : Metal, 74 per cent ; boots and shoes, 
82 per cent; wool, 88 per cent; paper, 89 per cent; 
silk, 97 per cent; cotton, 106 per cent; chemicals, iii 
per cent, and rubber, 112 per cent. At the same time 
the profits of the great industrial corporations have 
fallen off from 10 per cent in 19 14 to 7 per cent in 
19 1 8, according to figures by one of the confidential 
business information bureaus. Professor King shows 



52 LABOR AND REVOLT 

that labor*s percentage of the national income rose 
from 35.8 per cent in 1850 to 46.9 per cent in 19 10. 

Thus it seems clear that in America Labor is getting 
more than anywhere else, a larger and an increasing 
proportion and has the means for a better standard of 
living, in spite of the price advances. 

AN INCREASED PGVl^ER 

In the realm of organization, too, great advances 
have been made recently. The increase of more than 
500,000 in the membership of the American Federa- 
tion of Labor in the year 1918-1919 show^s this in 
figures. But it tells only part of the story. Through- 
out the war, very few cases of industrial dispute were 
handled by the War Labor Board in which the workers 
were not granted full freedom to organize, in addi- 
tion to wage increases and shorter hours. This aid to 
Labor from the government finally culminated in the 
remarkable declaration by the Board that every worker 
has a right to a "living wage" — a principle that is in- 
disputable on any humane or decent ground, but that 
is so in conflict with all our economic theories and 
practice as to be almost revolutionary. 

SPECTERS STILL AT LABOR^S SHOULDER 

But those who argue from these statistics that 
Labor's continued agitation is unreasoning, revolu- 
tionary, wrong-headed, criminal or even hysterical. 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 53 

have overlooked the most vital factors in the situation. 
For, in spite of all the advances that have been made, 
Labor is still far below a living wage, is still far from 
security, and far from having equal opportunity for 
the advancement of its children. 

In his report on the standard of living in America, 
Royal Meeker, Commissioner of the U. S. Bureau of 
Labor Statistics declares that "American families are 
not fully nourished until their yearly income reaches 
$1800." This is for a man, wife and three children. 
Yet a report on factory employment in New York 
state, for about the same time, showed that the average 
yearly earning for the state was $1154.40, and the 
highest was $1743.04. Thus even the highest are just 
below the standard of efficiency. 

This does not mean, of course, that these people are 
starving, but it does mean that the mother or children 
or both must earn if there is to be a decent standard 
of living, and when mother or children work for 
wages there can be no question that the home life is 
greatly impaired, and the children's future is coined to 
pay for the daily living. 

LIVING ON BABIES^ LIVES 

What this means in another way is shown by the 
figures comparing the death rate of babies with the 
incomes of the fathers: the relation between them is 
direct and absolute. With the father's income below 
$450 the rate is 168 per thousand; between $500 and 



54 LABOR AND REVOLT 

$550 It is 134; at $850 it drops to 109, while when 
it is over $1050 it is 64. Thus many of the workers, 
even under to-day's improved conditions, are Hterally 
fighting for their babies' lives ! 

Nor does Labor yet get an income that makes the 
worker able to provide against the rainy day — against 
sickness, unemployment, death or the many misfor- 
tunes which may come upon him through no fault of 
his own. Under all this agitation, behind the talk of 
wages and hours, is the underlying fear of hunger, 
cold and sickness — fear which to many of us has be- 
come a dim phantom, but which to the average Amer- 
ican worker, even to-day, is a grim specter at his very 
shoulder. 

The very fact that Labor has won higher standards 
is also inevitably an incentive to further struggle and 
to new demands. Complete contentment is a bovine 
quality, and so far as can be seen, becomes less and 
less with every step of progress. It has become a 
truism that discontent is always highest in times of 
prosperity, and this is not wholly caused by the fact 
that Labor then has better resources for battle. With 
better food and shelter come more energy and more 
ambition. Education, giving a clearer view of bless- 
ings out of reach, is another spur. This explains also 
the apparent paradox that unrest is most vigorous in 
the better paid classes of workers. 

Finally come those factors in unrest which are con- 
nected with Labor's defensive and offensive power. 
Labor, finding little help from society at large in its 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 55 

struggles against those employers who are unfair and 
oppressive, has become its own defender through or- 
ganization. The opposition of employers to labor 
organization and to collective bargaining is a constant 
irritant, and when, as often happens, the employer un- 
fairly invokes the governmental powers or even armed 
force to prevent it, Labor's resentment is great and 
just. 

AGITATION WILL BE ETERNAL 

For all these things: security of employment, wages 
that will insure a decent living, opportunity for his 
children's advancement, security against misfortune, 
hours that will leave him something of life beside 
work, and the right to organize and bargain collec- 
tively to obtain and insure his winnings — for all these 
Labor will continue to fight, and would have fought if 
there had been no war and no revolutionary agitation. 
Demands will increase as opportunity offers, and the 
worker learns more and more clearly what he wants. 
Those who attempt to lay all the blame for the present 
crisis on the World War, or on the Revolution, or 
expect to see a return to ^'normal" conditions within 
any brief time, have utterly failed to understand the 
life and heart of American Labor. 

Nor does there seem to have been any great prog- 
ress made toward a solution of the difficulties. Some- 
one has compiled a list of 84 sure-cures for social 
unrest, and they are being added to daily. The War 



56 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Labor Board's only contribution toward constructive 
thought was the declaration in favor of a living wage, 
and it apparently has had nothing to offer as to 
methods of determining what should be a living wage, 
or how money shall be found to pay it. There are 
many experiments being tried with profit-sharing, 
bonuses, shop committees, shop stewards, and so forth, 
but all are still in the experimental stage, and if any 
of them holds the secret of the panacea it has not yet 
been made manifest. 

BATTLING IN A WHIRLWIND 

The result has been the great outbreak of strikes, 
increasing five hundred per cent in five months during 
the summer of 19 19, and finally involving the whole 
nation through the great steel and coal walkouts. The 
majority of these strikes have been won, higher wages 
and other labor factors have each contributed their 
quota to the cost of living. New strikes have fol- 
lowed, new rises in prices, and so the circle has 
broadened. / 

In the resulting tension the original issue has finally 
been lost sight of, and opinion has centered on finding 
some way to stop the whirlwind. Everybody involved 
blames all the others, and the only possible means of 
reaching a truce — the establishment of some means of 
adjudicating and enforcing on both Labor and Capital 
justice in industrial disputes — is rejected by both with 
jeers. 



FUNDAMENTALS OF UNREST 57 

Finally we have some of the most conservative 
brotherhoods, those of the railway men, recognizing 
that the strike-raise-pay-raise-prices method is getting 
them nowhere, and jumping to the theories of the 
British guild syndicalists, while the head of the Steel 
Trust advocates a method of organization that closely 
resembles that of the I. W. W. ! Meanwhile word 
comes from Australia that the reform movement 
started there twenty years ago under Labor control 
has "run out," as other reform movements have done 
from the beginning of time, and has not brought a 
solution. The general public stands bewildered. 

So does much of the Labor world. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE giant's pockets PICKED 

The bitterness of Labor, its fear and distrust of employers — 
Their complication of the crisis — Their share of blame — 
Long-standing abuses and exploitation — Broken promises — 
Manipulation of piece work prices — Use of Negroes as 
strike breakers — Abuses that the laws have stopped — The 
conspiracy for reaction against unionism, collective bar- 
gaining, the living wage and Labor's right to know the facts 
of business — The false cry of "Bolshevism" — Labor's real 
struggle against the Reds. 

No one can go far in any study of the present un- 
rest without being deeply impressed by the extreme 
bitterness which marks the. attitude of both employers 
and employes, especially the latter. There are not a 
few of them who contemplate with complacency the 
possibility of seeing in America some such horror as 
has overwhelmed the employing classes of Russia, and 
many more would take pleasure in almost any misfor- 
tune less than death that might overtake those from 
whom they draw their pay. 

There exist, too, distrust so widespread that it may 
be said to involve the whole of Labor, and a fear and 
dislike amounting very nearly to hatred for the em- 
ploying class as a whole. 

This attitude has come to be so taken for granted 

58 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 59 

that few persons give it the weight they should. Yet 
it is more than dangerous to sHght it, since while it 
remains there is little hope of reaching any stable or 
satisfactory condition. It is equally dangerous, as 
well as unfair, to ascribe it either to ignorance or to 
natural depravity. American workmen are much like 
other Americans, and so deep and bitter a feeling 
could not have grown up unless there was much cause 
for it. 

Progress toward industrial peace is impossible un- 
less the employer joins the worker to bring about a 
better feeling. It is in their contact that the friction 
arises and though on the surface Labor alone is taking 
the aggressive there can be no intelligent discussion of 
the situation which does not include consideration of 
the extent to which the employer is to blame for this 
friction. If a harness galls it is both foolish and cruel 
to belabor the horse that wears it for being restive. 

EMPLOYER TESTIFIES AGAINST HIS CLASS 

What is it that Labor demands from the employer, 
the lack of which has given rise to all this rancor? 
There can be no better authority than an employer 
who has not had a strike in 35 years, and who has 
been called in as mediator in some three hundred labor 
disputes without a single instance of failure to avert 
a strike. He is H. B. Endicott, senior member of the 
Endicott- Johnson Company, shoe manufacturers, and 
he says: 



6o LABOR AND REVOLT 

The worker . . . wants a fair deal In his Individual job. 
He wants good working conditions, good wages, and a good 
home. He doesn't care two cents about anything else con- 
nected with the shop. Once he is assured that his employer 
is doing the honest thing by him, his mind is at ease so 
far as labor troubles are concerned. That assurance, how- 
ever, must come from the man higher up. 

No one can claim that Labor has had any such 
treatment as this from most employers. Many, it is 
true, have been fair; yet the whole history of labor 
legislation in this country has been the forced abolish- 
ing by law of one kind of abuse after another in the 
factories. In fact, the schemes for shop committees, 
shop stewards, and the entire agitation for "industrial 
democracy" are due to the need of having information 
as well as power to force fairness by employers toward 
employes and would never have appeared had it not 
been for the abuses. 

Now that these schemes have been evolved, it is 
likely that workers will demand them, even where they 
may not be needed, in order to protect themselves 
against those unfair employers who are always to be 
found — ^just as political democracy has been developed 
as a protection against political tyranny which is only 
occasional. 

But industrial democracy, if it takes the form of 
putting workers at the head of industry and eliminat- 
ing those who are trained to be at its head, is likely to 
be as inefificient as political democracy has been and 
no more effective in preventing abuse. In fact, except 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 6i 

with the actual revolutionaries, the belief that they can 
run industry better than the employers do has no ex- 
istence among American workers. Mr. Endicott adds 
to his statements his conviction that the worker really 
does not want to share in the management of shops. 



BIG PROFIT ON KINDLINESS 

The fact that labor troubles have been avoided by 
those employers who have taken pains to show per- 
sonal interest in their employes seems to justify Mr. 
Endicott's conviction. One employer of my acquaint- 
ance has almost equaled Mr. Endicott's record, and at 
the same time has actually been able to hire his work- 
ers at something like ten per cent below the market 
rate. He has maintained a personal contact, cared for 
the men in sickness, taken pains to see that employ- 
ment was as permanent as possible and to find places 
for the men who have become too old for the heavier 
work, sent a few of the most promising sons of em- 
ployes to college and taken his whole force of some 
2500 on an excursion to Niagara Falls, the Mammoth 
Cave or some such place, every year. 

The whole has cost him far less than his saving on 
wages, without counting the value of the freedom 
from strikes, small labor turnover and assurance of 
peace in his factory. While the fairness of offering 
these advantages in place of higher wages is open to 
question, his employes all know the situation and feel 



62 LABOR AND REVOLT 

that the comfort and security they enjoy on their 
jobs are worth the difference in actual money. 

Some of the abuses and exploitations from which 
Labor has suffered are so well known that they barely 
need mentioning. Most of them have been or are 
being ended by law: such are child labor, excessive 
night work and unheal thful work, long hours (there 
was a time when most factories in America ran twelve 
hours a day) ; lack of safety appliances around dan- 
gerous machinery ; lack of decent sanitation and light- 
ing, and the conditions that brought on the needless 
"occupational diseases." 



NO MONOPOLY ON BAD FAITH 

But others are not so well known. There is much 
and just complaint of violation of contracts by Labor, 
but the employers have been equally at fault along 
this line. One of the most recent instances was that 
of a big railroad which so re-arranged hours following 
an arbitration award, that the employes lost all the 
benefits of the nominal gains they had made. Another 
was that of a street railway company which refused to 
pay the amounts held back from wages pending arbi- 
tration. The cases in which agreements not to dis- 
criminate against union men have been violated are so 
many that they might almost be considered the rule — 
and Labor does so consider them. More often than 
not the employer manages to keep within the letter of 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 63 

the contract, while violating its spirit, but it cannot 
be said that this in any way mitigates the offense. 

A very common method of mulcting Labor has been 
the manipulation of piece work prices, and this is di- 
rectly responsible for the strict limitation of output 
which Labor voluntarily imposes on itself. An in- 
stance of how this works will explain, if it does not 
justify, this attitude. 

TYPICAL CAPITALISTIC THEFT 

A big shop which was engaged in the manufacture 
of electric dynamos and paid for the work by the piece, 
had a sudden call for a large number of dynamos of a 
certain type. The foreman knew that the workers were 
limiting themselves to an amount of work that would 
pay them all about the same at the end of the week — 
that is, the better men were doing no more work than 
the slowest could accomplish easily. So he called in 
the men, explained the situation to them, and promised 
that if they would forget their rules, and each man do 
as much as he could, there would be no cut made in 
the amount paid for that job. The men agreed, and 
the result was more than to double the output for the 
shop. 

The foreman kept his word and did not cut the price 
on that job. But within three weeks the price had 
been cut on every other type of dynamo made, and the 
type that was not cut was discontinued ! The manage- 
ment had secured data, from the way the men worked. 



64 LABOR AND REVOLT 

which enabled it to estimate very accurately just how 
much the best men could do if pushed, and the new 
prices were so fixed that these men were rather driven 
to make their earnings the same as they had been be- 
fore. The slower men were left with less than a 
decent wage, no matter how hard they worked. 

It is cases like this, which might be multiplied in- 
definitely, that have led Labor to limit production. It 
does not believe that, if it should work harder and 
better, it would be permitted to get any share of the 
results. 

CAPITALIZING RACE PREJUDICE 

Another widespread policy of employers, especially 
in the South, but in an increasing degree in the North 
as well, has been the use of Negroes both to keep 
wages down and to fight unionization. 

"It is a good result of race prejudice,*' one Southern 
employer said, "that the Negro helps us to beat the 
union. We can pay him lower wages, he will not stick 
to his union, even if the whites will let him join, and 
so long as he is to be had we are comparatively safe 
on all the lines of work that he can do." 

The race riots in industrial centers like East St. 
Louis, may fairly be charged, in large measure, to this 
policy. 

The lack of humane consideration, to say nothing 
worse, shown in the immediate displacing of men who 
have passed their most active years, has been another 



THE GIANTS POCKETS PICKED 65 

powerful breeder of discontent and hatred among the 
very men who would, if well treated, be the most con- 
servative element in Labor and the best defense of the 
employer against hot-headed youth. It has been added 
to by equal callousness in dealing with the men who 
have been displaced by new machinery. 

PETTY LARCENY FROM WORKERS 

A peculiar and brutal efficiency is given to the 
oppressive power of those employers whose plants are 
outside the large cities, most notably the mines and 
steel plants. There the employe is more definitely 
and directly dependent on the single employer than in 
the city. In these circumstances have grown up such 
abuses as the '^company store," where the worker has 
been forced to buy all his supplies at prices so scien- 
tifically exorbitant that they left him little of his pay, 
and the "company houses/* where he pays an extor- 
tionate rental for squalor, and is liable to eviction the 
moment he "makes trouble." 

The use of eviction in a labor war was reported 
as recently as September, 19 19, when the Associated 
Press carried the news that dispossess notices had been 
served on steel mill employes at Brackenridge and 
Sharesville, Pa. Eviction in such cases visually means 
that the worker, his family and their belongings are all 
thrown into the street in a town where only the em- 
ployer can provide shelter. 

The lumber camps are even worse, though the suf- 



(^ LABOR AND REVOLT 

ferers there are men without families. Here is the 
picture drawn by Mayor Ole Hanson of Seattle, the 
man who beat down the semi-revolutionary strike in 
that city in the spring of 19 19: 

The trottble (the Seattle strike) started with the em- 
ployers in the lumber camps. The men were vilely treated; 
two camps out of three were denounced by the Government 
as unfit for human beings, when war compelled the Gov- 
ernment to take an interest in the workers. 

The men packed their vermin-infested blankets from camp 
to camp. They lived under disgraceful, unhealthy condi- 
tions. In the p<friods between work no one would receive the 
poor men, or check their dreadful "packs" or cash their pay- 
checks except the proprietor of the basement saloon. The 
worst kind of saloon was the only place for these men to 
go. They knew no other home. And no human being took 
the trouble to seek them out except the I. W. W. agitator. 
No one else knew that they were alive or cared what became 
of them. In the lumber camps the I. W. W. literature was 
the only thing they had to read. 

Do you wonder that the I. W. W. teachings became their 
Bible ? They did not know, what I know, that the I. W. W. 
is in no sense a labor organization; that it does not seek 
to help labor; but seeks to make industry of all kinds and 
government of all kinds impossible, by making it impossible 
for the employer to do business on any basis whatever. 

It may be added that both the blacklist and the boy- 
cott, of which employers now complain with such bit- 
terness, were invented by employers as weapons 
against Labor. 

The whole situation was summed up by nine of the 
leading industrial engineers of the country in a letter 



THE GIANTS POCKETS PICKED 67 

which they sent to the abortive industrial conference 
summoned by the President in Washington in Octo- 
ber, 1 9 19. They said: 

The prevalent unrest in industry results from a system 
which permits the acquisition of wealth for which no ade- 
quate service has been rendered and tolerates special privi- 
lege, with the resulting exploitation of men, women and 
children. 

Great powers have been used arbitrarily and awtocratically 
to extract unmerited profit or compensation by both capital 
and labor. 

These are the conditions in a large part of industry- 
to-day . They are employers' contributions to unrest, 
to the possibility of revolution. 

NEW ATTEMPT TO ENSLAVE LABOR 

But they are not all. There is going on in Amer- 
ica to-day a powerful reactionary movement among 
employers, which has gathered up formidable forces. 
These employers hope to take advantage of the present 
situation to crush Organized Labor, to stop the "fool- 
ishness'* about workers' rights, to restore the old day 
when the employers' power was supreme, and he 
"could run his business to suit himself." 

Not all American employers, by any means, are in 
sympathy with this. Probably the greater number, 
and certainly a fast increasing proportion, have ac- 
cepted the principle of a community of interest with 
Labor, and are doing their best to live up to it. The 



68' LABOR AND REVOLT 

cleavage between the two is so sharp that many em- 
ployers are using quite as much breath in denouncing 
each other as in condemning Labor. But they are not 
bringing their discussion into the open. 

Something of the situation, however, from the in- 
side, may be gathered from the reports sent out to 
business men by one of the big secret information 
services. Its director is frankly on the side of those 
who believe that American Capital can find its best 
allies against extreme Radicalism and Revolution in 
the tried leaders of conservative Organized Labor. 
In April, 19 19, he sent out this: 

The large scale efforts now being made by employers rep- 
resenting large interests to block trade unionism deserve 
condemnation, not only from the standpoint of rights but 
as a business policy. If the effort were not so determined, 
if it did not represent big combinations of employers, and if 
it were not part of a long-devised plan, we should pass it 
over without remark. As things are the effort constitutes 
a gigantic mistake on the part of our employing interests." 



Three months later, in June, he had this to say: 

Advices from confidential sources indicate a concerted 
effort on the part of powerful interests to drive unionism 
out of American industry. Opponents of the unions also 
contend that the union can be outflanked by plans which 
contemplate doing through other agencies all and more than 
the unions can do. This is a concrete expression of a de- 
termination formed during the war to stand what could not 
be avoided to "win the war" and then show the unions 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 69 

where they got off. The proponents of these ideas are assur- 
ing employers that the days of unionism are numbered. 



HOPE TO MAKE WORKERS DEFENSELESS 

These employers are fighting four things, all of 
which Labor now considers vital. 

Foremost of these is the right to organize, and with 
it goes the right to collective bargaining. These two 
factors are worth looking into a little, since they are 
the cause of more labor trouble than anything except 
hours and wages, and have been for years the center 
of conflict. 

Labor considers the right to organize vital and ftm- 
damental. It feels that without organization the 
worker and the fair-minded employer are alike com- 
pletely at the mercy of the worst employer, and that 
from organization have come whatever strength Labor 
shows in the industrial field, and whatever gains it has 
made. It feels that the worker who is not a union 
man is a traitor, and it was for this reason that it so 
long pushed the demand, now somewhat relaxed, for 
the "closed shop," where none but tmion men are em- 
ployed. Moreover, it believes it has a legal and moral 
right to organize. 

Curiously enough it was not a worker, but Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, who best stated the unionists' creed: 

If I were a factory employe, a workingman on the rail- 
roads, or a wage earner of any sort, I would undoubtedly 
join the union of my trade. If I disapproved of the policy 



70 LABOR AND REVOLT 

of that union I would join to fight that policy; if the union 
leaders were dishonest, I would join in order to put them 
out. I believe in the union and I believe that all men who 
are benefited by the union are morally bound to help to the 
extent of their power in the common interests advanced 
by the union. 

The last sentence, of course, refers to non-union 
men whose wages and conditions of work have been 
improved through union activities. 

The union undoubtedly interferes with the employ- 
er's freedom of action. It forces up wages, increases 
troubles at the plant, prevents the unhampered dis- 
charge of men, maintains on the job men who have 
passed the peak of their efficiency and often limits 
production. For all these reasons it is violently 
opposed. 

But with the union, as with many other things, em- 
ployers often change with experience. In England, 
where the unions are about four times as strong as in 
America, employers now desire their workers to be 
organized. Even here many employers, who are not 
under "closed shop" agreements, nevertheless ask new 
employes to join the union, as they believe it makes for 
better feeling and consequently better work. 

LAB0R''S RIGHT TO HIRE COUNSEL 

The right to "collective bargaining" is almost in- 
separable from unionism. It has now come to be gen- 
erally recognized when the labor organization does not 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 71 

attempt to use "outside representatives" who are not 
shop employes. This apparent concession is more 
show than reahty ; since practically no unions are lim- 
ited to a single factory and the workers' representa- 
tives are usually officials of the central organization. 
The fight against collective bargaining is at present 
centered on the question whether the officers of the 
national unions do in fact represent the union of any 
particular shop and on the employer's demand that the 
representatives must be chosen from among his em- 
ployes. 

On the first point — it was on this point that the 
great steel strike was brought on — it is evident that 
any organization represents at least a part of the em- 
ployes, and as such is entitled to a proportionate share 
of consideration. 

On the second point, which really means the repre- 
sentation of the men in conference with the employer 
by union officers of higher rank than those of the shop 
local, it may be pointed out that the employer often 
has counsel or employes whom he pays to represent 
him at such conferences, and that the union official 
appearing is really no more than a paid employe of the 
workers. The length to which employers are going 
in fighting collective bargaining was shown in the 
President's abortive conference, which, nine employ- 
ers, out of forty-five members present, broke up rather 
than accept the principle in a form which was accept- 
able to Labor and to all the other members. 



72 LABOR AND REVOLT 

PROFITS AT workers' EXPENSE 

The principle of the ^'living wage" is the third of 
the things against which the employers are concen- 
trating their attacks. This is the idea that human life 
is more important than business, and that a business 
which cannot support its workers in decency has no 
right to exist, or at least has no right to exist at the 
cost of the workers. It lays down the rule that the 
payment of a fair wage shall be a basic charge against 
the business, as is the cost of materials, and that profits 
must be sought above that point. 

Employers invoke against it the law of supply and 
demand, and argue that they cannot pay more than 
the business will yield. The weakness of their argu- 
ment is that they may not know themselves just what 
the business will yield, though they know what it does 
produce. The same argument was used against grow- 
ing public indignation in the fight to keep the sweat- 
shops running and the result has proved that the busi- 
nesses involved were all able to continue. In this 
case, at least, what looked like the law of supply and 
demand has been amended by legislative action. 

There is another weakness in the employers' posi- 
tion in fighting this and all other demands where the 
question of the profitableness of the industry is raised, 
particularly since so many employers have fought 
Labor with equal determination on every other point. 
The workers simply do not believe what the employer 
says. And certainly the employer who for years has 



THE GIANT'S POCKETS PICKED 73 

been insisting that his business was his own, and that 
he would "tolerate no interference from Labor," is in 
an awkward place when, in response to his plea that 
Labor's demands make it impossible for him to operate 
at a profit, he is told that this is also entirely his own 
business, and that Labor is not interested in it. Even 
if it were, it would not take his word for the facts. 
It has been lied to too often. 



STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN IGNORANCE 

Thus the fourth principle against which employers 
are fighting is Labor's right to go behind the employ- 
er's word as to the facts about the industry for which 
it works. Labor has demanded this for years, be- 
lieving that these facts, if revealed, would give it argu- 
ments for higher wages. To-day, when the demands 
of Labor are at last cutting seriously into profits, and 
even threatening the existence of some businesses, 
there is a very general rush by employers to tell Labor 
as much of these facts as the employer thinks it well 
for Labor to know. 

Labor is not satisfied with this. It wants to get at 
all the facts, as a right. Particularly it wants to know 
the facts about costs of production, and their rela- 
tion to wages. Ex-President Taft recently declared 
"Labor has got to be given the right to discuss shop 
conditions and to meet on equal footing with the em- 
ployers. They have got to be given the right to talk 



74 LABOR AND REVOLT, 

efficiency and production and — yes, they have even got 
to be given the right to talk costs.'* 



IS JUSTICE BOLSHEVIK? 

There is one more count against Capital: the at- 
tempt by many employers to shelter their personal 
interests under the cloak of patriotism, to yell, "Bol- 
shevism" at every labor disturbance, and to induce 
public officials over whom they may have "influence'* 
to treat the workers like rebels. The use of the police- 
man's club and the Espionage Act against men who 
are as far from desiring revolution as is the employer, 
have set the edge on the class hatred of thousands of 
workers. The attitude of many employers seems to 
be that of Representative Dewalt, who when Glenn E. 
Plumb was discussing reforms before a Congressional 
investigating committee, asked where he stopped. 

"Where graft and privilege cease," replied Plumb 
and Dewalt asked: "Isn't this leading to Socialism?" 

Fortunately Socialists have no monopoly of the 
efforts to end graft and privilege, but too many em- 
ployers give the impression that they cannot see the 
difference. 

The reaction on Labor of all these forms of unfair- 
ness, callousness and exploitation is not confined to 
increasing hatred. It shows directly and immediately 
in the handling of labor troubles, and is a positive help 
to the Red agitators. 



THE GIANTS POCKETS PICKED 75 

EHPLOYERS' HELP TO THE REDS 

There were two big strikes in an Ohio city in the 
summer of 19 19. In this city the Central Labor 
Union is, as is usual, under the control of conserva- 
tive American Federation of Labor men, and is fight- 
ing Bolshevism among workers. The first strike was 
called in a factory which the Federation had never 
unionized, and was started and managed by the 
I. W. W. The Central kept its hands off in public, 
but privately it fought the strike. Its own men broke 
up strike meetings and mauled I. W. W. leaders, driv- 
ing many of them from the city. The strike failed 
within a month, and the I. W. W. members were glad 
to return to work on any terms whatever. For weeks 
thereafter not a Red agitator showed himself. 

Later a strike started in another big factory, and 
again the Reds were prominent. The Central Labor 
Union had started to adopt the same tactics that it had 
used with such success before, when the city's Cham- 
ber of Commerce, seeing the division in the labor 
ranks, believed an opportunity had come to attack and 
rout all Organized Labor. It came out with full page 
advertisements which struck at almost every demand 
and every principle of unionism, and declared that the 
A. F. of L. leaders were secretly supporting the Reds. 

In the face of such an attack, which threatened their 
prestige and their whole control over their men, the 
Central Union officials could do nothing but come to 
the support of the strikers. This they did, with a 



76 LABOR AND REVOLT 

double success, for they not only won the strike, but 
succeeded in taking credit for it away from the 
I. W. W. 

But the net result of the interference of the reac- 
tionary employers was the factory's loss of the strike 
and the vanishing of an opportunity for the Central 
Union leaders to teach the L W. W. a second and 
probably conclusive lesson. As it was, Soviets were 
being organized before the strike was a week old. 

Labor, as a whole, recognizes that employers are 
not entirely to blame for many of the evils and abuses 
that have been enumerated; it understands how great 
the pressure of competition may be. But it does not, 
and we cannot, fairly charge all these things to that 
pressure. 

So a considerable part of the blame for the hatreds 
and injuries which offer so fertile a field for the agi- 
tator of Revolution must be charged to ignorance, 
meanness, selfishness, cruelty and arrogance on the 
part of a large proportion of employers. 



CHAPTER V 

THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 

Labor shortage gives Labor power — Immigration; its injury to 
Labor, its abuse by Capital — Little chance of its being re- 
newed — Co-ordination gives Labor a bigger club— dominance 
of industry almost certain — Labor's growing power in poli- 
tics — Small importance of the Labor Party — The borrowed 
Anti-Saloon League method — Its strength and limitations — 
Political control by Labor to cement the industrial autocracy. 

The law of supply and demand, which has been 
playing heartbreaking tricks on the whole world since 
19 14, has finally turned against American employers, 
so far as labor is concerned. The reserve labor supply 
is now quite gone. It had been a blessing to managers 
of enterprise and was never quite exhausted, since 
even in the best of times about 8 per cent of our avail- 
able labor was unemployed. Labor now no longer 
needs to seek work, and obey the wishes of him who 
has it to give. Labor is now sought, and its whole 
position in its fight for better conditions is immeasur- 
ably strengthened. 

The change in the relations between Capital and 
Labor which this one fact has brought about is so 
vital that it alone is enough to account for many of 
the events and attitudes of the present tension. Per- 
haps it is just because it is so obvious that it is so 

77 



78 LABOR AND REVOLT 

frequently overlooked, and explanations for the 
change are sought in the mysterious influences of 
mob psychology and nerve-strain. Those things are 
involved, and so are the long-standing causes of un- 
rest which have been cited, but this labor shortage is 
the big, concrete fact which has changed the whole 
face of the industrial battlefield. 

The shortage probably amounts already in America 
to nearly five million workers — somewhere near a 
fifth of all the wage earners who would have been 
here if there had been no war. It is still increasing, 
and will become more and more noticeable as our in- 
dustrial machine attempts to speed up to full load. It 
is so large that there is a possibility that the problem 
of unemployment will not reappear for years except 
for short periods or in particular places, since even 
in the worst times there have seldom been more 
than 15 per cent of the workers out of employment, 
and the present shortage goes beyond that figure. 

There are three important causes of the shortage. 

NO ONE TO FILL DEAD SOLDIERS* SHOES 

First is the actual loss of man-power in the war. 
America's loss, comipared to that of the rest of the 
world, was exceedingly small; not over a hundred 
thousand. But there must be added for many years 
the hundreds of thousands who must man our in- 
creased army and navy. The total war losses of the 
civilized nations, however, counting both dead and 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 79 

disabled, are near fourteen million able bodied men. 
America is not freed from the effect of this loss, 
although the victims did not happen to be our citi- 
zens, because communication between continents is so 
easy that the whole world labor supply tends to equal- 
ize quickly. 

This tendency is, in fact, showing in the second of 
the reasons of the shortage — the stopping of immigra- 
tion. Meanwhile Labor in Europe finds itself in the 
same position as in America regarding supply and 
demand. Its use of that advantage to increase its 
welfare is watched, envied and imitated here. 

The stopping of immigration by the war accounts 
for by far the greater part of our labor shortage. For 
some time before 19 14 there had been a balance of 
travel of nearly a million a year in favor of America, 
and most of the million were workers, a steady, cheap 
and tractable asset for employers. That supply was 
cut off almost short. In the five years following the 
outbreak of the war the total was 1,172,679, as 
against 5,174,701 for the five preceding years, a short- 
age of a little more than four million. 

Finally as a third factor in the shortage, there has 
been a silent but large stream flowing away from our 
shores, a stream greater than the incoming one for the 
first time in history. It is estimated that for the five 
years a little more than a million have gone and few 
of those are likely to return. There are many reasons 
for this: the desire of natives of the newly freed 
nations to share the opportunities which they expect 



8o LABOR AND REVOLT 

freedom at home to bring; the hope that future con- 
ditions in Europe will increase the chances of pros- 
perity for all workers there; the heavy increase of 
taxes and living costs here ; and finally prohibition. 

'"''bull market"" for labor 

The result of this shortage is that Capital must now 
bid for workers; and to a very large extent, and an 
extent hitherto utterly unknown, must yield to Labor's 
wishes. If the men in his own shops depart, there is 
little hope of an employer's replacing them. The effect 
is seen in the great proportion of strikes which the 
men are winning, and even more in the far larger 
number of cases in which the threat to strike has been 
enough to bring compliance with their demands. 

These are facts, a situation. The question is how 
long the condition will last. That question can be 
answered only by looking to the chances for a tre- 
mendous immigration — an immigration numerous 
enough to make good the losses of the past five years, 
in addition to meeting current needs. There is no 
other present hope in sight, though there is the possi- 
bility of an increased birth rate if labor prosperity 
continues long enough, and there are the possible sup- 
plies that might be found among the Southern Ne- 
groes. Neither is very encouraging. There is also 
an increasing employment of women in industry, but 
the most optimistic can hardly hope that this will fill 
any large part of the five million shortage, especially 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 8i 

since the five million were mostly men engaged in the 
heaviest and dirtiest work. Any real relief must be 
imported. 

Yet the first move of the government affecting 
immigration after the war was to pass a law extend- 
ing for a year the war-time restrictions on the en- 
trance of aliens into this country. The understanding 
in Washington was that this extension might be re- 
peated indefinitely, until world conditions had settled 
enough so that legislation could be adopted with some 
hope that it would be both wise and permanent. 

THE IMPORTATION OF POVERTY 

When the time comes for the consideration of that 
legislation it is certain that the Labor Giant, and 
powerful allies with him, will oppose any action which 
will permit the old and almost unrestricted stream of 
cheap foreign workers to flow again through Ellis 
Island. The Giant has for many years recognized a 
deadly enemy in the immigrant, and statistics seem to 
prove his charge that the foreigner has definitely in- 
creased America's unemployment and with his cheaper 
living standard has cut down the American wage. 

In his "Wealth and Income of the People of the 
United States," Professor King shows that Labor has 
lost in two ways in its prosperity, since 1890. In the 
first place the share that Labor has been receiving out 
of the total selling value of the goods it produces has 
decreased during that time from 53.5 per cent to 46.9 



82 LABOR AND REVOLT 

per cent. This means that Labor got back about 13 
per cent less of what it produced in 1910 than twenty 
years earUer. In the second place, although the amount 
of profits made in trade and industry had increased 
steadily, both in face value and in purchasing power, 
Dr. King's figures show that Labor's wages had not 
increased in purchasing power between 1900 and 19 10, 
and that there had been practically no increase for six- 
teen years. 

Both of these things he ascribes to the undercutting 
of American labor by immigrants who were per- 
mitted to continue coming in after the population of 
this country reached a density where the law of di- 
minishing returns began to work. He says : 

The oncoming host is made up mainly of unskilled 
laborers. This means that the brunt of the burden of their 
support will fall not upon the property owner, not upon the 
technical expert, but upon him who is least able to bear it — 
the common laborer of the United States. By this invading 
army, then, the American workingman is despoiled of his 
heritage. . . . The low standard of the Old World tends to 
force itself upon the New and turn back the tide of progress. 

The evidence indicates that all the entrenchments of 
Organized Labor, all the legislation in favor of the work- 
ing class, all our new inventions, have failed to prevent the 
invaders from forcing down the commodity wages of Ameri- 
can labor. 

Labor will use every power it can invoke to see that 
this does not happen again. 

Against Labor's opposition must be counted the fact 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 83 

that the employers, who before the war carefully and 
scientifically stimulated the stream of cheap labor, will 
do so again if permitted. The question will simply 
offer one more point of friction between employer and 
employe, to be fought out in the political arena. 

BOT.SHEVISM COMES IN THE STEERAGE 

Labor has powerful allies in its fight. Arrayed with 
it will be all those who believe that American life and 
culture are in danger of being overwhelmed by the 
alien tide, and more especially those who are alarmed 
at the spread of Revolution by aliens. So many and 
so well-distributed are these allies that even Capital's 
natural desire for immigration is being greatly modi- 
fied, and many men of wealth will throw their influ- 
ence against the foreigner. 

Organized Labor, of course, is taking full advan- 
tage of this fear of Revolution to push its fight against 
the immigrant. It is pointing out that it was the 
first to fight the alien flood. Frank Morrison, secre- 
tary of the American Federation of Labor, declared 
recently that restriction of immigration was the rem- 
edy for bomb-throwing: 

For years the trades union movement has urged the re- 
striction of immigration but the workers have been opposed 
by steamship companies, the steel trust and other employers 
of labor who stimulated immigration. Many of these immi- 
grants were herded in large cities and other industrial 
centers. They were encouraged to use their own language 



84 LABOR AND REVOLT 

and to perpetuate traditions of their mother country. At 
election time they were voted en bloCj and if they would 
organize a trade union, or suspend work to stop exploitation, 
they were enjoined, clubbed and jailed. What can Ameri- 
canism mean to those people ? . . . This country is now reap- 
ing the result of its immigration policy — or lack of policy — 
during all these years. 

From all this it becomes clear that the restrictions 
on immigration will hardly cease within many years, 
if at all, and that the labor shortage, and Labor's re- 
sulting dominance in the industrial field, will continue 
in some degree for a period that cannot now be 
measured. Capital will have to make the best of it. 

MORE WEIGHT IN LABOR's FIST 

But it is not alone in the shortage of labor that the 
growing industrial strength of the workers is to be 
found. The agitation during many years for increased 
co-operation between various labor groups, for using 
the united strength of all for the good of each, has 
begun to bear fruit 

This is seen chiefly in the movement for the "one 
big union " (which is the stock in trade of the I. W. 
W. but has an appeal to Labor that does not neces- 
sarily involve revolution), in the development of the 
sympathetic strike, and in the increased grouping of 
individual crafts under trade councils. One example 
of these is the Metal Trades Council, which represents 
more than two score individual unions, and negotiates 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 85 

wage scales and hours in many cases on behalf of all 
that are affected. 

Even beyond this there is a tendency to alliance 
between trade unions that are less closely related in 
interests. A notable instance of this was the attempt 
to negotiate treaties between the miners, the steel 
workers, the marine transport workers and the rail- 
road brotherhoods, under which all would have thrown 
their whole strength behind the demands of each. Such 
an alliance would involve more than a million men 
and would have the whole transportation and indus- 
trial system of the coimtry so completely at its mercy 
that there would be almost no hope that anything less 
than the full power of the Federal Government could 
resist its wishes. 

Between these two forces — the shortage of labor 
and the power to paralyze by a single action far 
greater portions of industry than ever before — there 
can be hardly a doubt that Labor will have almost un- 
limited control over industry up to the point of making 
any industry impossible; more power than anyone 
would have dared predict even five years ago. The 
effect on the whole economic system will be almost 
anything Labor cares to make it. 

LABOR AS A POLITICAL ^^BOSS^' 

There is another great field outside of industry, 
which immediately and directly affects our national 
life: politics. In that, too, the power of Labor is being 



86 LABOR AND REVOLT 

felt more definitely of late. We have seen the chiefs 
of the railway brotherhoods lay down the law to Con- 
gress ; we have seen labor officials consulted, and their 
advice eagerly taken, in every phase of war activity 
except the handling of the forces actually under arms: 
in production, in transportation, in food, and fuel and 
other regulations for conservation ; in conscription and 
the exemptions from it, in regard to ship-building — 
and so on down the list. We have seen the financial 
world in panic lest Congress dare not refuse the rail- 
waymen's demand that the whole rail system be turned 
over to them under the Plumb plan. Surely, Labor's 
hand lies heavy on the Government. 

It has become a political proverb that Labor's vote 
cannot be "delivered." Yet the one thing that poli- 
ticians can read most clearly is election returns, and 
when we find them courting Labor, it must be because 
they have seen something in those returns that has 
impressed them. 

It is not the political organizations of Labor, the 
labor parties, that carry weight. These have failed 
to poll more than a few thousand votes, not a feather- 
weight in the political scale. 

Labor has learned another political method, and one 
that promises far more even than it has yet performed, 
which is much. The Giant has taken a lesson from the 
Anti-Saloon League, which by joining to its morality 
a quite unregenerate craftiness, solved the problem of 
making a minority, that was nevertheless cohesive and 
determined, felt in politics — solved it so successfully 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 87 

that that minority has driven Congress and most of 
our state legislatures to do its bidding, sometimes in 
direct opposition to the wishes of the states as shown 
by referendum. 

THE FINE ART OF BALANCING POWER 

It has solved this problem by working on the weak- 
est point in the machinery of representative govern- 
ment, the election of officials by majority vote. The 
American political system has this obvious feature — 
that in nine elections out of ten, the winner is voted 
for by only a few more voters than is the loser. Thus 
his election is actually in the power of the handful 
who make up, not all, but half the difference between 
his vote and that of the next nearest man. A simple 
illustration shows this: 

Let it be assumed that in a town of a hundred 
voters, the mayor is elected by a vote of 54 Democrats 
to 46 Republicans. The change, then, of five votes, 
would elect the Republican, 51-49. 

This is entirely obvious. But the result is not. It is 
this: Any man, any organization, any opinion, that 
can control those five votes only, can dictate the result 
of the election for the entire hundred voters. That 
man, organization or opinion can get from either can- 
date whatever the candidate is willing to pay for suc- 
cess. Candidates have been known to pay well, and 
chances are very good that someone will be willing 
to meet the price demanded — and will be elected. 



88 LABOR AND REVOLT 

If he fails to keep his pledges, the same power can 
see that he is beaten next time. By the time a few 
such lessons as this have been set before the politicians 
they are likely to become pleasantly tractable. 

This is the practical basis of politics that has made 
it possible for America to be ruled by minorities. Our 
''bosses" have understood it thoroughly, the "inter- 
ests" have used it when necessary — though they pre- 
ferred direct pressure by other means on officials ; the 
"liquor power" profited by it, for a time, and finally 
the Anti-Saloon League formulated it into an avowed 
policy and swept the country. 

There is only one possible antidote for it: the 
scheme ceases to work as soon as another minority 
block, of equal size, and voting determinedly against 
the first one, is formed. Then the two balance, and 
some other minority swings the control. 

It is this political lesson that Labor has learned and 
is putting into practice. As a result it is getting 
pledges — understandings, rather, for they are seldom 
written — from candidates of both parties. Then it can 
vote comfortably along party lines, or in any other 
way it wishes, assured that whoever wins its interest 
will be protected. But if any official fails to consider 
its demands it can drop all other interests and vote 
solidly against him. 

So far as Labor will do this, and so long as it can 
continue doing it, it will control politics — ^until the 
time comes when voters are aroused against it in num- 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 89 

bers equal to its own and equally willing to ignore any- 
other interests for the sake of beating it. 

Unless Labor itself shall make serious mistakes, 
that time seems far off, for party alignment, private 
friendship or personal interest control the majority of 
men and women in political matters, while Labor has 
been taught, through long years of discipline and 
much bitter experience, the wisdom of submerging 
these considerations for the general good of the class. 

Labor has not wholly learned to use this weapon, 
but it is learning fast. Its leaders understand it 
thoroughly, though they are not advertising their 
understanding, and they are beginning to put it into 
practice. This understanding is one of the reasons for 
their objection to the labor party scheme, since the 
more men they can keep in their swinging block, the 
greater its power will be. How tremendous this power 
is can be understood when it is remembered that a 
change of 5000 votes would have beaten most of the 
representatives now in Congress ; that a million and a 
quarter votes, properly distributed, could unseat almost 
every man there ; that a change of a million would have 
reversed all but two presidential elections. 

And the American Federation of Labor alone has 
about 3,500,000 members. 

WIRES THAT RUN TO ONE LABOR TEMPLE 

How this plan is working where it is being tried, is 
shown in a city of some 150,000 in a Middle Western 



90 LABOR AND REVOLT 

State. A hig strike recently drew attention to the 
political situation there, because the police were quite 
frankly favoring the strikers. 

An investigation showed that, through the system 
of "understanding" with candidates, and without any 
"political activity," Labor in that city could be sure 
of the complaisance of the mayor and his appointed 
cabinet, of two-thirds majority in the city council, 
of the school board, and also, incidentally, of three 
members of the state legislature and two representa- 
tives in Congress — in all of about three-quarters of all 
the public officials for whom the city voted. 

The shirt-sleeved magnate at the Labor Temple may 
not rule the city, but he gets what he wants. He 
says that Labor is not in politics, and doesn't want 
to be! 

This kind of thing will be extended until we see 
Labor directly and definitely controlling legislatures 
and Congress, as we have seen the Anti-Saloon League 
do it, and as we felt, rather than saw, the big indus- 
trial barons doing it a decade ago. And this political 
dominance of Labor will last until it kills itself, until 
by over-reaching and exploiting the nation as a whole, 
by injustice and oppression, as the money power be- 
came unjust and oppressive, it stirs up the sluggish 
forces of general opinion to its own destruction. 
When that time will come, if ever, depends on the 
Labor Giant himself. 

Labor's power has not yet reached its zenith. It 
may be some years before it is fully felt. But, unless 



THE GROWING AUTOCRAT 91 

there comes one of the great fundamental changes 
which occasionally overtake society, it may be 
counted certain that Labor, the Giant that has so long 
been the nation's servant, will for a time become its 
master, ruling both in industry and in politics, and 
quite naturally using both for its own good first. 

The Giant comes to power with both grievances 
and desires — grievances that are largely just and that 
have given him a bitter resentment that may flame out 
into reprisals; with desires that are also in the main 
just but that are necessarily selfish and in many ways 
dangerously short-sighted. He comes without any 
definite or well-thought-out plan for obtaining those 
desires, with a tendency to ignore the advice of men 
familiar with the larger problems because he has been 
taught to consider these men his enemies, and with 
comparatively little, as he sees it, to lose by experiment. 

The greatest experiment would be Revolution. And 
this is being constantly urged. The same forces which 
throughout history have sought by every means to 
overthrow society are urging him on ; the forces which 
hope from the ruins to get, some plunder, some 
Utopia. They have never yet succeeded in holding 
control, but they have more than once won it for 
a time, and always at frightful cost. 

How far will they succeed in America? 



PART II 
THE WRECKERS 



CHAPTER VI 

THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 

Germans help stir unrest — The sham of German Socialism and 
its dominance over American Radicalism — The pro-German- 
ism of the Socialists — Their war record — The interlocking 
of Radicahsm and obstruction of the war — The German 
corruption funds — The poison that came through Russia — 
— Soviet "ambassador" here a German — The German motive 
and the pretense of her weakness and reformation. 

A NEW German organization, successor to the Ger- 
man-American Alliance of "kultured" memory, whose 
charter was revoked by Congress because of dis- 
loyalty, was caught inspiring and aiding the class- 
war plotters in the disturbances at Gary, Indiana, dur- 
ing the steel strike. An officer of General Wood's 
staff testified before a Senate committee of inquiry 
that it had flaunted the German flag, and circulated 
radical and revolutionary pamphlets published in Ger- 
man, Russian and Hungarian. This organization is 
the German- American Citizens* League ; it was started 
in Chicago within a few weeks after the signing of 
the armistice, and has many local branches, of which 
that at Gary is one. 

It is more than a coincidence that the Military In- 
tdligence Division of the War Department, the divi- 

95 



96 LABOR AND REVOLT 

sion which during the war devoted itself to spy- 
hunting and to fighting the German propaganda and 
plots in America, should now be centering a large part 
of its energy on watching the Reds, for allied with 
them is our late open and still secret enemy — ^the Hun. 
There has always been a strong German tinge to 
Radicalism in America. This is to be expected, since 
the German mind, which operates as in a vacuum, un- 
troubled by the limitations which facts and conditions 
impose, is the natural father of theoretic Radicalism, 
and the natural enemy of the practical reasoning which 
underlies Americanism. To the German and the 
Radical, for example, liberty is an abstract thing, to 
be viewed in the light of pure logic, and worked out 
into beautiful theories. To the American liberty must 
be conditioned by the rights of others, and thereupon 
pure logic, Teutonism and Radicalism depart together. 

"kultur" the mother of socialism 

A far more tangible German influence on Ameri- 
can Radicalism has come from the fact that the 
American Socialist Party is a direct outgrowth of 
German thought, was founded by Germans and has 
always been completely under the domination of the 
German socialist leaders. Thus American Socialism, 
and to a large extent most of the other Radical move- 
ments which are outgrowths of Socialism, shared the 
faults and the hypocrisy of the German cult — ^the 
same cult of which the leaders became the Kaiser's 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 97 

jackals for the betrayal of their fellow-Socialists in 
Russia, and which but for the courage and foresight 
of real Socialists in America and the Allied coun- 
tries, would have attempted another betrayal at the 
Stockholm conference in 191 7; the same leaders who 
are even now betraying their own followers by the 
erection of a sham democracy in Germany, under 
cover of which the old imperialist, militarist rulers 
are fast gathering their power for an attempt to re- 
store the monarchy. 

Radicalism in America, then, was more than ready 
to help Germany when the war broke out, and it was 
through the Radicals that many of the most success- 
ful German agents and propagandists operated. The 
sudden increase in the membership of the Socialist 
Party during the war was largely due to this, and 
thousands who joined it then made small secret that 
they were in no way Socialists, but found the name 
a valuable cover for disloyal activities. 

Throughout the war and since the Socialist Party 
as a party, and in spite of the opposition of some 
members, has at every point taken the position Ger- 
many desired. It has never taken any other. Every 
policy it has adopted or advocated has been to Ger- 
many's advantage ; it has advocated and adopted noth- 
ing that would have aided Germany's enemies. 

No denials of pro-Germanism by the Socialist 
leaders make it possible to believe that this is merely 
a long series of coincidences. It is probable that few 
members of the party, and still fewer of the workers 



98 LABOR AND REVOLT 

at whom the party, together with other Radical bodies, 
is now aiming its propaganda, have any idea of the 
extent to which the Sociahst leaders are identified with 
the German cause. American workers as a whole, by 
an overwhelming majority, were intensely loyal dur- 
ing the war, and would be the first to distrust the 
offerings of the Reds, if they understood whence they 
came. It may therefore be worth while to check up 
the evidence on this point. 

HOW SOCIALISTS HELPED THE HUN 

1. The Socialist Party in August, 19 14, while the 
rape of Belgium was still going on, and just as it was 
becoming clear that it would take the entire strength 
of civilization to save the world, issued a demand 
through its National Committee on Immediate Action 
that the government prohibit the exportation of arms, 
food or money. This was exactly what Germany 
wished. It would have insured German victory in 
the first months of the war. The party reiterated 
that demand from time to time, and early in 191 7 
Victor L. Berger declared in his paper that "the war 
would have been won by Germany two years ago if 
there had been an embargo on exports." 

2. Official delegates were sent by the party to 
represent it both at the peace demonstration organ- 
ized by Ambassador Dumba in New York, and at the 
National Peace Congress, which cheered* the news of 
sinking of an American ship by a German submarine! 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 99 

The delegates to the latter meeting were withdrawn, 
however, following protests from non-Germans in the 
party. 

3. The National Committee indorsed Germany's 
programme of "no annexations and no indemnities/' 
and Morris Hillquit, the party's candidate for mayor 
of New York, declared that this would not permit 
payment for damages actually done to Belgium. When 
John Spargo attempted to have the definition changed 
to permit reparation to Belgium he did not get a 
single supporting vote. 

4. The party, when this country finally declared 
war, adopted a platform declaring that the working- 
man could have no interest in the war, that he should 
oppose it with all possible strength, and that no So- 
cialist was justified in taking arms on behalf of 
America. 

5. Party leaders joined the disloyal movements that 
were carried on to obstruct the war, the raising of 
the army, the sale of Liberty Bonds and the punish- 
ment of sedition. 

Nowhere has it been possible to find, in any of the 
many proclamations and resolutions of the party, or 
in the speeches or writings of any of its leaders ex- 
cept among that patriotic group who seceded follow- 
ing the adoption of the disloyal platform, a single 
word of condemnation of any of the Hun's deeds. 
The eloquent silence of the Socialists has been as pro- 
German as their speech and actions. 



100 LABOR AND REVOLT 

OTHER REDS AID WAR OBSTRUCTION 

But it is significant that not alone in the Socialist 
Party have the relations between Disloyalty and 
Radicalism been of the closest. Leaders of the Reds 
of all varieties joined in opposition to the war. In a 
list of 125 officials of pacifist, obstructionist and dis- 
loyal organizations, none of them openly pro-German, 
87 are members of Radical bodies, or have given pub- 
lic support to Radical propaganda. All have been 
active in public. 

There is another group of men and women, who 
were used by Von Papen and Boy-Ed, the German 
propaganda chiefs here, who are now agitating Bol- 
shevism. Their names have never come before the 
public, and while this is being written evidence of the 
activities of some of them is awaiting action by grand 
juries. 

NEW USE OF BERNSTORFF's CORRUPTION FUNDS 

Proof of German backing for class-war propaganda 
in America is appearing also from another quarter. 
Germany, it is known, has large funds available for 
secret use abroad. A credit of 25,000,000 marks, 
for which no accounting would be asked, and which it 
was understood was to be used for propaganda in 
foreign countries, was given to Count von Brockdorff- 
Rantzau by the "democratic'' and supposedly re- 
formed German National Assembly in the spring 
of 1919. 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND loi 

There were many millions of the secret funds in 
Count von Bernstorff's charge still unused when he 
left America in February of 19 17. Part of these he 
sent to German consuls and secret agents in South 
American countries, part were put in charge of trusted 
men in this coimtry. 

The government has been unable to get legal proof 
such as would warrant the seizure of these funds, but 
the secret services have located and watched a large 
part of them. These funds are now being put to use, 
and those which were sent out of the country are being 
returned, according to evidence gathered by the New 
York State Legislative Committee to Investigate Sedi- 
tious Activities in the State of New York, commonly 
known as the "Lusk Committee." 

There has been no corresponding outbreak of open 
pro-German propaganda, however. At the same time 
evidence is accumulating from many sources that the 
Reds have at their disposal almost unlimited funds. 
In the minds of government agents who are in touch 
with Red activities, the only question remaining is 
whether the German funds are big enough to account 
for the immense amounts the Reds are spending. 

THE HUN-SOVIET ALLIANCE 

The support that the Hun gave to the Bolshevist 
in Russia is well known. Lenin and his apologists 
have declared that they would have accepted aid from 
any quarter, and that there is and has been no co- 



102 LABOR AND REVOLT 

operation with Germany in repayment for that aid. 
The Radicals here, and there are not a few, who will 
admit that they are getting German assistance, make 
the same apology — ^an apology which holds good only 
if its maker believes that his own country is a worse 
enemy than is the Hun. 

Another proof of the purpose of the Germans, if 
not of the Bolshevists, is seen in the constant influx 
of German men and money into Russia to-day. This 
might be possible without the active connivance of 
the Soviet leaders, though that does not seem likely. 
The hope of the Germans is clear and openly avowed. 
It is a German domination of Russia that shall over- 
whelm the new, small states of Eastern Europe and 
forge an empire that can again bid for world ruler- 
ship in arms and in industry, backed by 250,000,000 
men and women instead of 90,000,000. 

HUNS AND REDS IN IRELAND 

The Hun-Soviet alliance has shown itself with par- 
ticular vividness in the subversion of the Irish Sinn- 
Fein to distinctly Red purposes. The corruption of 
this organization, which started among patriotic 
Irishmen for patriotic purposes and is still believed 
by many to have kept that character, has been told 
in detail by Richard Dawson in "Red Terror and 
Green." It was begun by the Germans even before 
the war, through Sir Roger Casement. 

When the Germans failed the Sinn Fein leaders 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 103 

quickly and easily transferred their allegiance to 
Bolshevism. To-day we find the movement using the 
terrorist methods of Bolshevism, dominated by the 
revolutionary Irish labor unions, appealing for help 
to the revolutionary elements all over the world, and 
with its leaders openly advocating Bolshevism and 
going as missionaries of Bolshevism to other coun- 
tries. James Larkin, one of the biggest of these 
leaders, has been convicted in New York for criminal 
anarchy. 

The Bolshevik purpose to spread its propaganda 
throughout the world has been officially advertised 
by it, and its activity has been detected in many places 
in America. The Swiss police have even discovered a 
counterfeiting plant where bogus American money 
was being manufactured by Bolsheviki, apparently 
with the purpose of financing their campaign here, as 
they have financed campaigns in European countries, 
on counterfeit money of the governments they attack. 

It is therefore significant that the "ambassador" of 
the Soviet government to America is a German, claim- 
ing Russian naturalization, on papers issued by a 
consul of that government while the "ambassador" 
was in America. This man, Ludwig C. A. K. Mar- 
tens, was registered in Britain in 19 14 as a German 
alien. He came to America shortly. Late in 191 7, 
after the Bolshevist revolution had overthrown 
Kerensky, he wrote his sister in Denmark to get Rus- 
sian citizenship papers for him from the Russian 
consul. She replied that she had done so, and he 



104 LABOR AND REVOLT 

forthwith claimed Russian citizenship, and later re- 
ceived his appointment as "ambassador," but it was 
not till January of 19 19 that his citizenship papers 
came. They were dated October, 19 18. 

This is the revolutionary Bernstorff, who, accord- 
ing to Attorney General Charles D. Newton of New 
York State "maintains a direct connection between the 
Bolshevists in Russia and the Radicals in the United 
States/' Mr. Newton adds that his duties include 
"furnishing legal aid to Radicals charged with viola- 
tion of the Espionage act, co-operation with the vari- 
ous Socialist organizations in the accomplishment of 
industrial unrest, dissemination of Radical literature 
extolling Bolshevist rule in Russia, furnishing radical 
speakers for meetings of extremists held to protest 
against the imprisonment of L W. W. associates, main- 
tenance of a correspondence bureau by which every 
radical of note in the United States was kept in touch 
with the progress of revolutionary propaganda, and 
the distribution of the appeals of Lenin and Trotsky 
to the extremists of America." 

Martens himself has admitted that he is in continu- 
ous secret communication with Moscow and receives 
large amounts of money through underground 
channels. 



AMERICAN REDS TAKE LENIN^S ORDERS 

His purposes here are revealed in documents seized 
from Bolshevik messengers at Riga, and published in 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 105 

The New York Times. One, directed at large to 
American Reds, establishes the relation between these 
Reds and the Bolshevists by warning the Reds that 
"the Embassy and Comrade Martens are not subordi- 
nate to any organization. Organizations are advised 
to work in full contact with the Embassy, which is 
responsible only to the All Russian Central Committee 
of Soviets." 

Another document gives at great length the plans 
for fomenting rebellion in America and is signed by 
Bukharin, Chief of the Executive Committee Bureau 
of the Communist Internationale. It demands the or- 
ganization, in Moscow, of an American party to be 
composed of the Socialist Propaganda League, the 
"Left Wing" Socialists (now the Communist Party), 
the extremer elements of the Socialist Labor Party, 
and the I. W. W. It urges the fomenting of strikes, 
the cultivation of unrest, agitation over the cost of 
living, and the arming of the workers — all activities 
which as will be shown are being vigorously carried 
out by the Reds here. 

Further than this, the Lusk Committee has obtained 
proof that among the I. W. W. agitators are many 
trained in Russia and sent here for propaganda work. 
At Gary evidence was found connecting the agitators 
directly with the Russian propaganda. And William 
Phillips, assistant secretary of state, has declared offi- 
cially that the Bolshevists "have availed themselves of 
every opportunity to initiate in the United States a 



I06 LABOR AND REVOLT 

propaganda aimed to bring about the forcible over- 
throw of our present form of government." 

German or Russian, v^hatever master or masters he 
serves. Martens has worked effectively. 

Such is the evidence of the German alliance with 
those who are seeking the overthrow of our govern- 
ment — an alliance in thorough accord with the tradi- 
tions of German policy as we learned to know it in the 
war, an alliance that is no less an attack upon a peace- 
ful nation than were her torpedoings of our merchant 
ships and the firing on our wom.en and children in open 
boats. 



REVOLUTION AS A SPECULATION 

To complete a case on trial in our courts, it is usu- 
ally necessary to show that the person accused had 
some motive for the crime alleged, and it will be asked 
what Germany's purpose can be in spending millions 
to weaken if not to overthrow our government, what 
benefit she can hope to obtain. 

It became evident by the fall of 19 19 that those who 
had been warning us that Germany was not crushed 
by the war were entirely right. The rioting in Ger- 
many which filled the earlier months of 19 19 ended 
suddenly after the signing of the peace treaty, and 
proof appeared that the new "reformed" German gov- 
ernment had instigated the Spartacan disturbances and 
then suppressed them for their effect on the Peace 
Conference. In fact, Brockdorff-Rantzau inadvert^ 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 107 

ently admitted as much when he declared that Ger- 
many could "dam the Bolshevist flood, or could re- 
lease it." The threat of Bolshevism in Germany proved 
to have been only one more of the shams against which 
we are never quite enough on our guard. 

Another sham that became evident soon was that of 
her starvation. American observers who had been in 
Germany since the armistice united in declaring that 
they found little more than the normal amount of un- 
der-nourishment, little of the excessive privation that 
was so widely advertised by the Germans when they 
were asking us for food. The home-grown propa- 
ganda had filled Germany itself with stories of such 
misery, but their scene was always located in some 
other part of the country. It was the same with cloth- 
ing and with most of the other supplies which Ger- 
many has been telling us she lacked. There was short- 
age, but no famine. 

And the new German "democracy**! Brockdorff- 
Rantzau and Bernstorff, whom America knows, were 
again at the head of great affairs there, men who were 
utterly identified with the old regime, and are utterly 
opposed to all that the new one is supposed to stand 
for. That was not accident. The most violent propa- 
gandists of the new freedom were men like Wolff, 
head of the news bureau which bears his name, and a 
constant vehicle for the propaganda of the old rulers. 
That was not accident, either. 



io8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

THE GERMAN STILL A HUN 

Under this "reformed" German government the 
conquest of the Baltic provinces was attempted, and 
the soldiers who were fighting there still took oath to 
the Kaiser! The army in the field, a German army 
with German officers, numbered 300,000, three times 
as much as the armistice terms permitted. Incident- 
ally, it revealed German generals making a common 
cause with Russians — and the expansion of Germany 
to the east, through Russia, is the dream which has 
come to take the place of that of the Pan-Germanists. 

Nor was the spirit of the Germans in any way 
altered. The old worship of force was still there. The 
old arrogance, the old ambition, were all present. 
Hardly a word of repentance had come from all her 
millions. She had been beaten, and accepted the fact. 
Further, nothing. 

So it is clear that the Germany with which we must 
deal, and whose policies we must watch, is one crip- 
pled, certainly, but far from crushed. It is evident, 
too, that in this Germany, whatever face may be put 
on affairs, the old crowd is still in control, having 
merely shifted the Kaiser and his retinue from the 
stage and put on the Social Democratic puppets. 
America knows what dummy directors are, it should 
recognize the trick easily. 

Germany is like a young man who has plunged 
heavily and lost, but is still strong and resourceful. 
Her first ambition is to "get back in the game." She 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 109 

has already done what she can at home. The German 
was hard at work even before the AlHed countries had 
come any where near to resuming normal operations. 
And he is working on a very definite and long-thought 
out programme, a programme that was prepared to the 
last detail while the war was going on, and was put 
into motion even before the armistice was signed. 

NEW SCHEME FOR WORLD CONQUEST 

It is a programme aiming at the conquest of the 
world through commercial means, and through a sys- 
tem of deception, bribery, cleverness and force that in 
all respects matches the German war policies. It is a 
programme that will make use of militarism, as of old, 
if the time and circumstances become favorable, and 
preparations are being m.ade for that, too. But the 
new conquest aimed at does not depend on the army. 

One typical instance of the German preparation for 
trade conquest is that in the chemical and dye trust. 
The importance of this industry cannot be overstated. 
It is the producer of high-explosives ; and the beauti- 
ful colors which the Germans are now trying to sell 
us are literally a by-product of the manufacture of 
death for American and Allied soldiers, each tinted 
with American blood ! Throughout the early part of 
the war the Hun used his control over vital medicines 
in an attempt to force concessions in America, and 
actually killed hundreds here by refusing drugs on 
which their lives depended. Now this trust, whicb 



no LABOR AND REVOLT 

doubled its capital during the war, has again doubled 
it, and is reaching out for a grip on the world through 
which the German can enforce commercial dominion 
of the earth. 

The effects of this new campaign appeared in other 
parts of the world, as well as in America. Within six 
months of the armistice, and before the peace treaty 
was completed, a German propaganda was under way 
for the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine — not that it was 
hoped to get any immediate action, but that the ques- 
tion might be kept open, especially in American minds, 
for future trouble. In July of 19 19 German Com- 
munists appeared suddenly in Denmark and attempted 
to organize a strike of harvest hands at the critical 
time, thus ruining the harvest and giving Germany a 
high-priced market for her exportable foods. The 
Baltic adventure, aiming at the exploitation of Russia, 
has already been mentioned. 

Germany's great army camouflaged 

More menacing yet were the means which were used 
to evade the provision of the peace treaty against a 
great army. Full evidence of these has been presented 
in France. In the Reichswehr (Imperial Army) of 
100,000 men, which the peace treaty permits, there 
were in November, 19 19, more than 50,000 former 
non-commissioned officers, and the organization was 
that of a skeleton force, to which hundreds of thou- 
sands could be added at an hour's notice. To provide 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND in 

these Germany had organized the Zeit-Freiwillige 
(Temporary Volunteers) who were called up once a 
week for drill and target practice. They answered the 
call in field uniform ! Then there was that Volkswehr 
(People's Army) of the "revolution/* turned into the 
Einwohnerwehr (Citizen's Army), a sort of national 
guard. All these peaceful Huns kept their arms at 
home. Finally there were some 800,000 men still reg- 
ularly under arms — ^the 300,000 who were with von 
der Goltz in the Baltic and about 500,000 undemobil- 
ized "depot troops." Foch declared late in 19 19, that 
Germany could mobilize a million men instantly. 

All over the country, moreover, monarchist propa- 
ganda went on unchecked, especially among the sol- 
diers. The government made no effort to restrain it 
nor to curb the activity of the militarists. The offi- 
cers, who were comparatively modest in behavior while 
the peace treaty was being negotiated, and seldom 
appeared in uniform, resumed their old habiliments 
and arrogance. Everywhere the grip of the military- 
imperialists on the country became more open. 

At the same time official Germany had broken out 
with an epidemic of books. Memoirs, apologies, his- 
tories, revelations, appeared in a flood. Germany 
itself paid very little attention to these — they were 
propaganda, intended for foreign consumption, and 
the Germans recognized it. 



112 LABOR AND REVOLT 

AN OCTOPUS WITH TEN MILLION TENTACLES 

Again, Germany was making all preparations for a 
"peaceful invasion'* of many countries. Her exiled 
sons were one of her greatest strengths during the 
World War, and a constant menace to all other 
nations. Before it began they were the very founda- 
tion of the wonderful foreign trade she had built up. 
Their loyalty to her, even to the third and fourth gen- 
eration, their unscrupulousness, their industry and 
their amenability to orders from Wilhelmstrasse made 
them an army of occupation on foreign soil. The 
notorious Delbrueck law enabled them through per- 
jury to remain German subjects while obtaining by 
fraudulent naturalization the color and the power and 
protection of citizenship in the invaded countries. 

It had been predicted that as a result of the losses 
of man-power in the war, Germany would be obliged 
to stop emigration ; that she would need every man to 
restore her industries. 

But she does not. 

In the first place no invading army looted her fac- 
tories or ruined her mines, and her industries are far 
less badly disorganized than those of any other coun- 
try involved in the war except America. 

In the second place she still has vast collections of 
stolen machinery and equipment from Belgium and 
northern France, while those countries are crippled by 
her deliberate destruction of their industrial ma- 
chinery. 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 113 

In the third place she has learned to make use of 
her women in a way which no other civilized country- 
has attempted. 

Finally, she is already imposing on her workers 
hours of labor that increase the possible use of this 
machinery by from 25 to 50 per cent. Many of them 
are working twelve hours a day without protest. 

So Germany can spare men and is actually aiding 
and encouraging emigration. She has established a 
government bureau which not only will help her men 
get abroad but will keep in touch with them there, aid 
them to get established and see that they remain loyal. 

Careful preparations for this were made even dur- 
ing the war; the Allied prison camps became schools 
for teaching to the German prisoners the languages of 
the countries they were destined to invade, and the 
technique of the trade or profession they were to take 
with them. Germany's new army of invasion will 
come thoroughly organized and equipped. In this 
army, especially, are many trained agitators of Bol- 
shevism or of lesser revolutionary doctrines, for Ger- 
many is prepared to offer to every man just as much 
Radicalism as he will absorb. 

American diplomatic officers have warned against 
the revolutionary menace of the invasion, and it was 
because of this warning that the law continuing the 
war barriers against aliens was passed. Our State 
Department believes that nearly ten million Germans 
alone — ^not counting Austrians — are preparing to join 
the invasion, and that millions of them will come to 



114 LABOR AND REVOLT 

the United States and to the South American coun- 
tries where the German colonies already entrenched 
almost caused rebellion during the war. There is in- 
formation that 250,000 in particular are to go to Mex- 
ico to manufacture the munitions of war which the 
peace treaty forbids Germany to make at home ! The 
government itself is making every effort to lead the 
bulk of them toward Russia in furtherance of the 
plan to dominate that country and its vast re- 
sources. 

Thus Germany is preparing both for trade conquest 
and for revenge. She is gathering soldiers and com- 
mercial forces, she is already at work to sap the 
national strength of all other countries, so that when 
the next test comes, whether on the battlefield or in 
trade, her well-knit and perfectly obedient subjects 
shall be confronted in their fight only with disorgan- 
ized resistance. 

AMERICA THE INTENDED VICTIM 

The fact that these millions of the German invaders 
are being directed by their government toward Amer- 
ica is no accident. Germany is sure of finding allies 
here. The loyalty of many German-Americans to the 
Fatherland reappeared with startling suddenness and 
amazing shamelessness almost the moment the armis- 
tice was signed. Great gatherings in most of our 
larger cities proclaimed this loyalty openly; German- 
ophile organizations sprang into being overnight. The 



THE HUN IN THE BACKGROUND 115 

German immigrant who comes here will find the road 
smoothed for him. 

Important, too, is the fact that Germany expects 
America to be her best future customer. There is 
less bitterness toward the Hun here than in Europe; 
there is also far more money to be had. 

Finally, in any future contest, of arms or of com- 
merce, the United States will be Germany's most dan- 
gerous foe. It was our resources and our men that 
finally turned the tide against the Hun, and the Hun 
has not forgotten. He had counted on our unity 
being weakened by the Germans already here, but they 
were not enough to serve his ends. 

He will be better prepared next time. 

For all these things, for the accomplishment of his 
whole programme both in America and the rest of the 
world, every industrial or social disturbance here, 
every step toward revolution, will help the Hun. 

If our industry is dislocated we will not only buy 
more from him but will be also a less dangerous trade 
competitor. 

If our morale is undermined we will be the more 
easily affected by his propaganda. 

If we become disunited, crippled, at w^ar with our- 
selves, we will offer the less resistance if his next at- 
tack should be launched against us, or less aid if it be 
hurled at our allies. 

It is only to be expected that an uncrushed Ger- 
many, unregenerate and with all the old ambitions and 
the old immorality, should use to-day as she has used 



ii6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

before every dishonorable means to undermine Amer- 
ica, and that to accompHsh this she should join with 
the Reds to make war both upon our prosperity, our 
stability and our government. She has motive, will- 
ingness and means to join with Bolshevism against us. 
The startling thing is that so many Americans should 
help this attack. 

So behind the specter of Revolution stands the 
world's enemy — the Hun; only a little disguised, and 
still the same creature that the world has learned to 
fear and hate. He stands there hoping that the mil- 
lions he is spending to help push America to destruc- 
tion will be like the few cents that the wrecker spends 
on the false lights that lure vessels upon the rocks, and 
that from the wreck he will profit hugely. 



CHAPTER VII 

DECOYS — ^AND LOOT 

Safety first for Red propaganda — Varied beliefs unite for mis- 
chief only — Some differences as to method — The three 
classes of revolutionists; Socialists, Sjnidicalists, Anarchists 
— The various Red aims : abolition of all authority, of God, 
of morals, of race distinction, of advantages from brain or 
training — Political parties become propaganda agencies — 
The anti-Americanism of the Socialist Party — The Socialist 
Labor Party — The Labor Party — Industrial Workers of the 
World — The camouflage of Revolution — The real purpose. 

Revolutionary propaganda in America has been 
under a serious handicap ever since the passage of the 
Espionage Act, and especially since the amendment of 
the Act on May i6, 1918. The enemies of Arnerica 
of all kinds, if they wish to keep out of jail, as all save 
a few sincere zealots like Roger N. Baldwin and 
Eugene V. Debs have most fervently wished to do, 
have had to moderate their utterances or disguise them 
with double meanings. The only exceptions are in the 
violent anonymous pamphlets and hand-bills which 
appear from time to time, and there is much evidence 
to connect these with men and women whose signed 
writings are far less inflammatory. 

Any study of the purposes of the Reds, as set forth 
in their propaganda, must be undertaken with this limi- 

117 



Ii8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

tation constantly in mind. It must never be forgotten 
that the writers wrote with the threat of a cell hang- 
ing over them, that often the real meanings are hidden 
under all kinds of camouflage, and that innuendo and 
suggestion are constantly used to convey to sympa- 
thetic readers ideas which the authors dare not state 
openly. 

Examples of this are the use of the expression 
"mass action," which may mean strikes, but usually, in 
the revolutionary jargon, means armed revolt ; the use 
of "expropriation" to cover confiscation of property — 
in other words plain theft, of "the dictatorship of the 
proletariat" to mean the exclusion by force of all 
classes but the workers from the government and from 
the suffrage, and in the L W. W. propaganda of the 
word "scratching" to mean sabotage. 

RED FLAG UNITES MANY SCRAMBLED AIMS 

The Red aims on the surface are diverse and al- 
most irreconcilable. There are Reds who advocate no 
government at all, and Reds who want every indi- 
vidual act regulated ; Reds who would abolish machin- 
ery as a hindrance to freedom, and Reds who would 
turn the whole world into a machine; Reds whose 
writings show that they hope to establish an earthly 
heaven, and Reds whose inspiration is the hope of loot. 
But the Reds have agreed that "it is more important 
to emphasize our points of agreement than those points 
on which we disagree" ("Freedom," June, 1919), and 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 119 

have reached a working understanding on an imme- 
diate aim, leaving the adjustment of differences till 
that aim had been achieved. 

That aim is, of course, class revolution: the over- 
throw of the government of the United States, the 
seizure of all property in the name of the workers, the 
establishment of a ''dictatorship of the proletariat," 
the destruction of the whole organization of society 
as it now exists, and the construction of a new form of 
society which will insure "real freedom" and "real 
equality." 

It is only when details of the new form of society 
are taken up, that serious differences among the Reds 
begin to arise. All use the same terms "equality" and 
"freedom" — but no two factions agree as to just what 
they mean. 

An immediate though minor difference arises re- 
garding how to bring about the Revolution. Marx, 
father of Socialism, laid down the rule that it was the 
duty of the proletariat to bring about this result by 
"any means" in their power, and practically all Reds 
agree to this. 

Historically there have been two general schools of 
thought among them as to means : that of "the propa- 
ganda," and that of "direct action" — education and 
force. Quite recently a new method has been added 
to "direct action" and it has for the time taken the 
forefront in America — revolution by strike. 

"Some day there'll be a general strike that will start 
in some city" a Red leader said to me recently. "It 



i2o' LABOR AND REVOLT 

will spread from place to place till it covers the whole 
country. On the day that that strike covers the country 
all the governments will just go on the scrap heap, 
won't they? There won't be any use for them because 
labor will rule.'* 

It was not till the summer of 19 19 that the Reds 
in any significant numbers turned toward actual, 
armed rebellion. Probably not more than a small per- 
centage of them, and those not among the leaders, be- 
lieve that the time will be ripe for this for some years, 
at least for many months. America was omitted from 
Lenin's grandiose scheme for world-revolution on No- 
vember 7, 19 19, and it may be assumed that the infor- 
mation sent him regarding what is possible in America 
necessarily must include every encouragement there 
may be for hope of immediate success. Nevertheless, 
the leaders demand violence as a means of propaganda 
and within one forty-eight-hour period in the same 
month for which he scheduled the world revolution, 
there were a series of anarchistic bomb outrages in the 
steel towns, the seizure of a quantity of arms and am- 
munition in the West Virginia coal fields, and an ad- 
mission on the part of Communist leaders in New 
York that they planned the organization of "Red 
Guards" on the Russian model, and under orders of 
Lenin. During the steel strike there was a wide belief 
on the part of aliens that they were to rise in arms and 
seize the mills. 

When the class-revolution is accomplished — "peace- 
fully if possible" — there is further agreement among 



DECOYS— AND LOOT i2i 

the Reds on one thing more: none but workers 
shall have any power in the new society. Some say 
"workers with hand or brain," but there are many who 
deny the value of brain labor. As to excluding all but 
"workers," however, all are agreed, though most put 
it in the phrase "dictatorship of the proletariat." 

Lenin defines this as "a mode of conducting the 
business of the state without the bourgeoisie and 
against the bourgeoisie. . . . Since we are engaged in 
the task of overthrowing the bourgeoisie, only fools 
or traitors will insist on the formal equality of the 
bourgeoisie." 

The American Reds are a little chary of defining 
the phrase. 

LOOT AND LICENSE WANTED 

Beyond this comes the babel of conflicting opinion. 
It would be amusing but unprofitable to follow its de- 
tails. Every point is at issue, and each Red can prove 
to his own satisfaction — and to that of most people — 
that the theories and programmes of all the other Reds 
are impracticable and hopeless. In general, however, 
in America the Reds in following out their quest for 
"equality and freedom" come in some manner to the 
following conclusions: 

I. There shall he no authority, of man over man, 
or of God over wjin. 

"It is a struggle against . . . authority in all 
forms," said Roger N. Baldwin when convicted of re- 
fusing war service. 



122 LABOR AND REVOLT 

"One of the instruments for the obscuring of the 
consciousness of the people is the beHef in God and 
the devil, etc., in short — religion," writes Bukharin 
in "The Class Struggle." *We shall also understand 
why the Communist Party is so resolutely opposed to 
religion. . . . God is he who is great and strong and 
rich. How else is God glorified? As the 'Lord.' 
What is a Lord ? A lord' is a master and the opposite 
of 'slave,' etc. 

2. There shall he no conscience, no morals, no 
ethics, except those of class and personal interest, 

"Industrial Socialism" says : 

Class interest is the basis of class ethics. ... An indi- 
vidual, or nation or a class will finally come to think that 
right which is to his material advantage. . . . When the 
worker comes to know this truth he acts accordingly. He 
retains absolutely no respect for the "property-rights" of the 
profit-takers. He will use any weapon which will win his 
fight. . . . He knows that whatever action advances the in- 
terest of the working class is right. 

August Strindberg, reprinted in "The Class 
Struggle" says: 

It is possible that morality is not so dreadfully moral, 
as it is an invention of the upper classes, for their own im- 
moral purposes, to keep down the lower class! 

3. There shall be no racial distinction of any kind, 
in property, in opportunity, or in sex relationships. 

Some of the anarchist colonies in America have at- 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 123 

tempted to put this last into effect, till stopped by the 
rebellion of some of their women members against 
sex relationship with Negroes. Anarchists, of course, 
oppose any form of marriage ceremony. 

4. There shall he no advantage to anyone from 
brains, training, industry or good behavior. Of course, 
advantages from property are abolished along with 
property. 

Says Lenin: 

The principles of the Paris Commune and of any pro- 
letarian rule . . . demand the reduction of salaries to the 
standard of remuneration of the average worker. 

Says *The Forge": 

The Educated Class! What is this so-called Educated 
Class to-day? Was it the Educated Class that set Europe 
afire and then drowned the conflagration in human blood? 
Are they the most intelligent representatives of the Edu- 
cated Class who gibber their outworn phrases over the 
"Peace Table'' in Paris to-day, while they draw up the 
conditions on which the next war will be declared — if they 
remain in power. Is it the Educated Class that calmly 
watches starvation and death carry off its slaves by the 
millions to an early grave sooner than give them a little 
more of the product of their toil? Undoubtedly. They and 
none other. Then, from a social viewpoint, of what avail 
is their education, their Science of Death, their Arts of 
Mass Murder? Away with them. 

The proposition of equality of income involves that 
of preventing reward for being industrious or thrifty. 



124^ LABOR AND REVOLT 

though the Reds are quite careful not to state it. The 
matter of behavior is covered under morals. 

During the early days of the Russian Revolution 
Radicalism in America was quite insistent on the 
abolition of all government except that of shop Soviets 
— the practical elimination of any central power. 
Lenin, however, has admitted that the working of 
Bolshevism requires an ''iron hand" and a "higher dis- 
cipline of the toilers" than under Capitalism even, and 
Anarchist-Communist schemes have now been per- 
mitted to slide into the background. 

Such, in brief, is the Revolution as it is dressed 
to-day. This outline of its plans will hardly be chal- 
lenged as being on the whole untrue, though, as has 
been said, there are many variations from it — Rad- 
icalism is extremely individualistic. Each of the quo- 
tations given is typical, and each might be multiplied 
a hundred — a thousand times — from the current Red 
propaganda. 

The attainment of Revolution was until recently 
hoped for through political action, so far as the major- 
ity of American Radicals were concerned. In this they 
followed the practice of the German Majority Social- 
ists — the Parliamentarians — who worked through the 
regular government machinery, and pushed a pro- 
gramme that was nothing more than rather advanced 
reform, whatever the ultimate goal may have been. 
The American Socialist Party followed this practice, 
not on the ground that violent revolution was in any 
wav wrongful, but in the belief that it would be unsuc- 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 125 

cessful. The party counted its success by the occa- 
sional winning of some office, and measured its 
strength by election returns. 

With the new hope of an actual revolution within 
measurable time a new spirit has come over all the 
Radical parties. Political action has become distinctly 
secondary and their first interest is to act as agencies 
for the propaganda of Revolution. In the resolutions 
adopted by the Socialist Party at the St. Louis con- 
vention — the same convention that voted to oppose the 
efforts of America in the World War, it said : "The 
social revolution, not political office, is the aim and end 
of the Socialist Party." And the Socialist Party is the 
mildest of the revolutionary organizations ! The "Left 
Wing,'' now the Communist Party, in its manifesto 
declares: 

It must carry on its political campaigns, not merely as a 
means of electing officials to political office, as in the past, 
but as a year-round educational campaign to arouse the 
workers to class-conscious economic and political action and 
to keep alive the burning ideal of revolution in the hearts 
of the people. 

SOCIALISTS GIVE POLITICAL POWER TO ALIENS 

How little the Socialist Party is a political party, 
and how completely a revolutionary organization, is 
shown by its rules. Its members need not be voters, 
they need not even be citizens. All its measures are 
decided by majority vote of the members, so that it is 



126 LABOR AND REVOLT 

entirely possible for the party, or for any local Social- 
ist organization to be dominated — to have policies and 
vote controlled — by aliens. This in itself removes it 
from the class of political organizations. 

When it does succeed in electing a member to office, 
he is required to follow in all official actions the in- 
structions of the party organization in the district he 
represents, that organization including the aliens, of 
course. Finally, no member of the party is permitted 
to vote for any other than the Socialist Party nominee, 
and if there is no nominee, he is not permitted to vote. 

These rules are so utterly opposed to all American 
ideals that they have driven away, rather than at- 
tracted, Americans who were in some degree in sym- 
pathy with the reforms the party advocates. Party 
leaders have recognized this, yet have made no change 
in the machinery or rules. They have preferred to 
accept the heavy political handicap rather than to 
weaken the efficiency of their mechanism for propa- 
ganda and Revolution. A well-disciplined, obedient 
machine, dependable even if small, was more valuable 
to them than greater numbers would have been, or 
would be, if those numbers were not wholly sub- 
servient or were in any way given to the American 
habit of individual thought. 

Socialism, as advocated by this party, abandoned 
the ideal of patriotism, and became revolutionary, 
rather than evolutionary, when the radical wing cap- 
tured the St. Louis convention, in April, 191 7. The 
report it then adopted, said: 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 127 

As against the false doctrine of national patriotism we 
wphold the idea of international working-class solidarity. . . . 
The working class of the United Staes has no quarrel with 
the working class of Germany or any other country. 

The party platform offers a programme "designed 
to assist in the passing of this bankrupt system of cap- 
italism, not as a final substitute for it. . . . Any pro- 
gramme that leaves industry, finance, transportation 
and natural resources in the hands of exploiting groups 
will perpetuate the causes of international discord and 
lead to another world tragedy. The main struggle of 
the masses is to secure control of these basic institu- 
tions." 



RADICALISM THAT CAME FROM FRANCE 

Nearly equal to the Socialists in numerical strength 
are the Syndicalists. The name is taken from the 
French syndicat, meaning merely trade union, but 
should in no way be confused with trade unionism in 
America. They demand that wealth, productive and 
distributive, be taken over by the various trades unions, 
and it excludes from industrial power all capitalists 
and the state. 

Syndicalists do not contemplate having any central 
authority and expect industry to be carried on by 
agreement between groups of workers. They believe 
all non-producers useless, and hold that there can be 
nothing but armed truce between Labor and Capital. 
Society, under their plans, would be what might be 



128 LABOR AND REVOLT 

called an anarchy of communes. The Plumb plan of 
the railway brotherhood is a step in this direction, 
though not necessarily revolutionary. 

The political party representing this group is the 
Socialist Labor Party, small in number, but exceed- 
ingly active in propaganda. It publishes papers in six 
languages. It does not, at present, advocate violence, 
but it calls on the workers "to organize themselves 
into a revolutionary, political organization under the 
banner of the Socialist Labor Party, and to organize 
themselves likewise upon the industrial field into a 
revolutionary industrial union in keeping with their 
political aims." 

The recent growth of the English guild movement, 
with a distinctly Syndicalist programme, and the suc- 
cess of some of the English political strikes or strike 
threats, have greatly strengthened the propaganda of 
the Socialist Labor Party, which depends largely on 
the strike, as a political weapon, to accomplish Revo- 
lution. It is interesting to note that for many years 
the party was dominated by Daniel de Leon, the father 
of the Bolshevist theory. The labor organization 
sponsored by the party, and professing identical prin- 
ciples, is the W. I. I. U. — Workers' International In- 
dustrial Union. A great part of its activity is directed 
against the crafts labor unions and the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 129 



revolution's strongest arm 

A child of the Socialist Labor Party, though un- 
loved by its parent, is the I. W. W., the Industrial 
Workers of the World, to give it its full name. It is 
the most numerous and dangerous of all the revolu- 
tionary organizations to-day, though it has only be- 
come so within the war period, after many vicissitudes 
and failures. 

Its methods and purposes are outlined by Vincent 
St. John in his "The I. W. W., Its History, Structure 
and Methods." They are worth quoting at some 
length : 

As a revolutionary organization the Industrial Workers 
of the World aims to use any and all tactics that will get 
the result sought with the least expenditure of time and 
energy. The tactics used are determined solely by the 
power of the organization to make good in their use. The 
question of "right" and "wrong" does not concern us. 

No terms made with an employer are final. All peace, so 
long as the wage system lasts, is but an armed truce. . . . 

Failing to force concession from the employers by the 
strike, work is resumed and "sabotage" is used to force 
the employers to concede the demands of the workers. The 
great progress made in machine production results in an 
ever-increasing army of unemployed. To counteract this 
the I. W. W. aims to establish the shorter working day, and 
to slow up the working pace, thus compelling the employ- 
ment of more and more workers. . . . Interference by the 
Government is resented by open violation of the Govern- 
ment's orders. ... In short, the I. W. W. advocates the use 



130 LABOR AND REVOLT 

of "Militant Direct Action" tactics to the full extent of our 
power to make good. 

An offshoot of the L W. W. in principle if not in 
fact, is the One Big Union, of which little has been 
heard in the East. It was formed early in 19 19 by 
Canadian seceders from the American Federation of 
Labor, and spread like wildfire through the Canadian 
west, and then down across the border into our own 
northwest. In theory and practice it follows the I. 
W. W. 



ANARCHISM : LIBERTY RUN WILD 

The third and last great current of revolutionary 
thought and purpose is Anarchism. There is no pre- 
cise definition of the term, as there are literally scores 
of variants. According to Emma Goldman, its lead- 
ing exponent in America (until deported late in 1919), 
it is "the philosophy of a new social order based on 
liberty unrestricted by man-made laws ; the theory that 
all forms of government rest on violence and are 
therefore wrong and harmful as well as unnecessary." 

The variants of Anarchist doctrine are so wide and 
numerous that no precise definition of it is possible. 
Many of its adherents are not only harmless but ex- 
ceedingly valuable citizens, while others are extremely 
dangerous. In contrast with most Reds, whose 
theoretical beliefs indicate the extent to which they 
menace the community. Anarchists must be judged 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 131 

entirely in the methods they advocate, and not at all on 
their philosophical beliefs. 

Anarchist principles forbid the formation of a polit- 
ical party, but because they are opposed to the state, 
many Anarchists support internationalism, and be- 
cause they oppose property, they support the idea of a 
proletarian revolution. 

The Russian groups of Anarchists in America have 
caused most of the recent attempts at violence, such 
as the use of bombs, and have put out the most in- 
flammatory propaganda, though Anarchism itself does 
not of necessity involve any direct action. Many An- 
archists, headed by Emma Goldman herself, have 
joined the Syndicalist movement, because it is, as she 
says, "the economic expression of Anarchism." 

Her propaganda on that subject makes the aim of 
Labor agitation the injury of the employer more than 
the benefit of the workers! 

All three of these currents of Radical thought have 
united in the demand for the overthrow of the gov- 
ernment, on the common platform of internationalism 
and a class-war, and finally on the propaganda to de- 
fend Bolshevism and to encourage its establishment in 
this country. Even I. W. Ws., once barred, are now 
back in the Socialist Party. 

The support the Reds give Bolshevism differs in de- 
gree and in frankness, but it is a common hall mark of 
all the revolutionary activity. It is this, more than any 
other thing, that shows how complete is the breaking 
away of the American Radicals from the tradition of 



132 LABOR AND REVOLT 

peaceful conversion of the majority of Americans to 
their beliefs. The Soviet form of government, which 
they advocate, is not in itself horrible, though it is 
apparently unsuccessful In its behalf fairly reason- 
able arguments may be advanced. Its principle is the 
choice of legislative representatives by industrial 
groups — that is by Soviets, which are shop or profes- 
sional unions — ^rather than by geographical divisions, 
and the absolute control of the executive and the judi- 
ciary by the legislative power. 



BOLSHEVISM IN PRACTICE 

But it is not in the theory of Soviet as against terri- 
torial representation that the menace lies. It is in the 
practice of Bolshevism, which the Radicals unite in 
defending no less than they do the theory. That prac- 
tice has appeared in full in Russia, and, however much 
the Reds' apologists here may deny that the theory and 
practice necessarily go together, the Russian leaders 
are under no such delusion, nor do they either seek to 
excuse the practice or see need of excuses. 

The statements of Lenin, the '^proletarian dictator" 
are quite clear on that subject. In his * 'Letter to 
American Workingmen,*' he said: 

The class struggle in revolutionary times has always in- 
evitably taken on the form of civil war, and civil war is 
unthinkable without the worst kind of destruction, without 
terror and limitations of form of democracy in the interests 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 133 

of the war. One must be a sickly sentimentalist not to be 
able to see, to understand and to appreciate this necessity. 

Terror, destruction, limitations of democracy — that 
is Bolshevism in practice. That is the kind of revolu- 
tion on which Radicalism in America is novir united. 

THE HYPOCRISY OF '*'CLASS-RULE^^ 

But this is not all of Bolshevism, as expounded by 
Lenin. His plan hits at every trace of government by 
the people, at the whole basis of self-rule toward which 
all progress has been tending for centuries. Here is 
the report of Arthur Bullard, an American Socialist 
who writes from a personal acquaintance with the Bol- 
shevist Dictator and his doctrines: 

Lenin is frankly and outspokenly anti-democratic. On 
this subject he became heated. He objects to both the theory 
and practice of majority rule. The mass of the people, he 
argues, have been too debased by capitalist oppression to 
know what is good for them. Long hours of labor have 
robbed them of any chance to acquire general culture or to 
understand their own position and needs. And they are too 
ill-nourished to have the energy to struggle, too terrorized 
by the fear of losing their jobs to revolt. He spoke hope- 
lessly, with marked disdain, of the "lethargic mass." The 
capitalist will always be able to fool the majority. He saw 
no hope of progress if one waited for democratic action by 
the masses. Toward democracy in action he was even more 
bitter. What, he demanded vehemently, had it accomplished 
for the workers in France, Britain or America? 

Lenin pins his faith on the "enlightened, militant minority," 
"the elite of the proletariat.'* He is frankly for a "minority 



134 LABOR AND REVOLT 

revolution." Of course he maintained that the "lethargic 
mass" would benefit by his projects and in the end rally to 
them. But he does not expect them to initiate anything. 
Revolution for, but not by, the people is his ideal. 

The ethical teachings of the day, Lenin argued, have been 
imposed on us — ^like our property laws — ^by the possessing 
class. Lenin repudiated all allegiance to what most people 
call "moral obligations." For him the only good is that 
which hurries on the emancipation of the working class. 

This is Bolshevism as it is, as personified in its great- 
est leader: not only violence, terror and destruction, 
but revolution by a minority, imposing itself on the 
majority of the nation, overthrowing not only the gov- 
ernment but all ideals and all morality, a new autoc- 
racy. 

Bolshevism in Russia simmers down to this, stripped 
of all the camouflage of idealistic verbiage; Lenin 
thinks he will be a better autocrat than the Czar. Of 
course this would not be hard to do. The point is 
that if he succeeds in doing it, as everyone must 
hope he will, it will be by the denial of the very 
principles which he and Bolshevism are trying to force 
upon America and the rest of the world. 

To establish a similar rule there is urged terror and 
bloodshed and destruction, even in America. 

SAFETY FIRST FOR AMERICAN REDS 

American revolutionaries at present are not quite so 
frank, however. They praise and defend Bolshevism 
— ^they do not exactly advocate it openly, except in 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 135 

rare instances. Partly this is because they are temper- 
ing their programme to the more conservative minds 
they are trying to seduce. Partly it is fear of the law 
— safety first. There is a recent change, for instance, 
in the published views of William Z. Foster, In his 
"Red Book," printed about 1914, he said: 

The thieves at present in control of industry must be 
stripped of their booty. . . . This social organization will be 
a revolution. . . . The Syndicalist sees in the state only an 
instrument of oppression. ... In modern society, as in all 
ages, might is right. The end justifies the means. 

Foster has now got inside Organized Labor. Since 
doing it he has published another pamphlet, "Trade 
Unionism — ^the Road to Freedom." In this he shows 
a different choice of language: 

It is idle to say that the trades unions will rest content 
with anything short of complete emancipation. For they are 
as insatiable as the veriest revolutionary union. The degree 
of their conquests is limited only by their power. Too much 
weight should not be given to such slogans as "A fair day's 
pay for a fair day's work" and "The interests of capital and 
labor are identical." They are for foreign consumption. 
Their purpose is to deceive and disarm the opposition. 

Foster's friend John Margolis, an I. W. W. attor- 
ney, is a little franker. 

"I welcome the feehng of unrest; I favor all 
strikes," he declared. 



136 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Many of the agitators, like "Mother" Jones at Gary, 
are more frank, and are urging bloodshed. 

A FEW HONEST AGITATORS 

The most honest, however, of the Revolutionaries 
are the L W. W. and their close allies, the One Big 
Union leaders. The following which has appeared in 
the publications of both organizations and is here 
quoted from The Internationalist Socialist Review, 
sets forth their creed: 

Right never did prevail, and never will, without the aid 
of might. 

The New Morality says: 

Damn interest! 

Damn profits! 

Damn rent! 

Damn agreements! 

We've damned well enough to do to look after our own 
damned selves and our families. 

And whatever is calculated to help ourselves and our 
class is moral, good and pure. 

What injures our class is immoral. 

The power must be taken away from the policeman's 
club. 

How? 

Anyhow. 

Why? 

Because it hurts our class and is therefore immoral. 

So we must spike the guns and turn them around. 

How? 

Anyhow, because it hurts our class and is immoral. 



DECOYS— AND LOOT 137 

Don't strike for more than you have a right to demand. 
You have a right to demand all you have the power to 
enforce. 

These are the aims of Bolshevism — ^the methods by 
which they are to be won have appeared in their very 
statement: by "any and all means," by "mass action," 
by means "to be determined in each country according 
to conditions existing at the critical moment" ; "to take 
over industry is a positive act and a revolutionary one 
and folded arms (the general strike) will not accom- 
plish it." Peaceful means are put forward for propa- 
ganda purposes with those whose stomachs turn at the 
idea of slaughter; violent means are understood as 
the final method if necessary. 

In carrying out this violence, also> the extent to 
which it must go is clear — it is to destroy society. 
"The bourgeoisie state must be completely destroyed" ; 
"Revolution is on the wing . . . devastating and de- 
stroying, and creating and achieving." 

All our institutions, all our ideals, our morals, our 
ethics, our conscience, our God — all are to be wiped 
out for the benefit of the Revolution ! 

Yet in all this there is a possibility of real nobility 
of purpose. The Utopia which some of the revolu- 
tionaries see might be worth the whole cost, at least 
the cost in property and lives, if it would be won. The 
world has paid big prices for Its progress before this, 
and later generations, even the generations that paid 
the price, have thought the gain more than wortli 
while. If that Utopia should be realized 



138 LABOR AND REVOLT 

THE BAIT AND THE HOOK 

But all this is not the real Revolution — it is the 
cover only, the propaganda put out to draw converts, 
the decoy for the game, the bait. How many of the 
revolutionary agitators believe in it cannot be guessed. 
Undoubtedly the majority of them do. 

But not all. 

The real sources of the Red agitation cannot be told 
in full. The American government, like all other gov- 
ernments, is watching with anxious care, and many of 
the facts which it knows, and which others in touch 
with the situation also know, cannot be revealed until 
they are brought out in court. Earlier publicity would 
only add to the difficulties the secret services must sur- 
mount in fighting and recovering the whole conspiracy. 

This much may be said: Behind the various Red 
organizations, behind their different policies and pro- 
grammes, behind the confusion and clamor that is in 
reality a means of reaching as many differing types 
of minds as possible, stands a central, unseen power, 
directing and supporting the whole. 

From it come funds for each of the Red activities, 
funds which appear mysteriously when needed and 
always in sufficient amount. 

Through this central power Red agitators also ap- 
pear where they may be useful. If any unrest breaks 
out in which they have not had a hand they are soon 
there to exploit it to the utmost. This power is well 
served, moreover, and usually the Reds are there be- 



DECOYS-AND LOOT 139 

fore the slightest hint of coming trouble has appeared 
on the surface. 

The Red agitation in America is not a spontaneous 
thing, arising from discontent caused by deep griev- 
ances of real tyranny. It is a cultivated, organized, 
inspired, well-financed, carefully directed conspiracy. 

It does not strike at random. It is by no accident 
that Reds of all shades have suddenly turned as one to 
new policies. There are Reds who are not under its 
control, of course. Those who sent the bombs broad- 
cast over the country in the Spring of 19 19 were out- 
siders. But the great mass of the Reds, the thousands 
who are busily working together, are all part of the 
same army. 

REAL AIM OF THE RED CONSPIRACY 

That army aims at no small conquest, it will not be 
turned aside by any minor defeat. The deportation of 
a few hundred men and women will affect it not at all. 

Its work will continue so long as there is any 
chance that by it America can be injured. 

The men behind this conspiracy do not expect 
Utopia. They see in the Revolution one great and 
immediate advantage for themselves, the weakening, 
perhaps the destruction of America and of all civiliza- 
tion but their own ; a weakening that will permit them 
to carry out schemes of conquest, whether in commerce 
or by arms, that would be impossible against a strong 
and prosperous world. 



140 LABOR AND REVOLT 

For this they are willing to destroy and to kill, and 
it matters nothing to them if the tools they use, the 
workers they are pretending to help, are broken in the 
process. 

There is another class of leaders, of whom Lenin 
is the chief, who are allied with this conspiracy for 
their own ends and who also have no delusions about 
the rule of the masses. They believe with Lenin that 
the masses must be guided — and that they can be 
guided by themselves. Lenin believes that he will rule 
the people for their good. Probably most others of 
his type believe this too, for it is seldom that a man 
will tell himself that he wants power only for its own 
sake, that he will use it only for his own enrichment. 
He may include these uses for his power — but to keep 
their own respect most men must make themselves be- 
lieve that they will repay in some form. Who would 
not find it easy to believe they are doing good if the 
belief will bring them such opportunities for ambition 
and for plunder as have come to Lenin and Trotsky? 

So the Revolution, the desperate adventure that 
would stake all that Civilization has won in twenty 
thousand years upon the hope of a universal panacea 
"to put an end to every ill that oppresses humanity," 
this Revolution is itself being exploited. It is being 
exploited by a conspiracy which, under no delusion of 
a panacea, aims only at destruction for the benefit it 
may bring to the conspirators, and by men who, de- 
luded or not, are seeking power for themselves and 
not for the masses. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 

Substituting laziness for unemployment; an historical experi- 
ment — The need of spurs to industriousness — Lenin learns 
by experience — Theories that have been disproved still 
preached by American Reds : excessive price fixing, fiat 
money, division of property, government ownership, under- 
valuation of brains — How Socialist economic theories failed 
in Belgium — How Socialist political theories failed in 
Germany. 

When, in 1790, the people first ruled in France and 
thousands were out of employment in and around 
Paris because of the dislocations caused by the Revo- 
lution, the Assembly proclaimed that it was the duty 
of the state to assure comfortable living for all its citi- 
zens. In furtherance of this duty, it ordered the open- 
ing of workshops, under government control and sup- 
ported by government funds, where any citizen could 
find work. No shaky popular government can stint on 
the wages paid its employes, so those offered were the 
highest in France — 20 sous a day. The workers 
flocked to those shops and stayed. Those that were 
out of work came, of course, but thousands left less 
well paid jobs for the high government wages. No 
one ever quit, and, of course, no one could be dis- 
charged — such governments do not discharge voters. 

141 



142 LABOR AND REVOLT 

By October Paris had 19,000 on its rolls; Toulon, 
where the same thing was done, 11,000; Amiens 
15,000, and the Seine-Oise department 41,000. Con- 
sidering the meager industrial development of those 
days, it is probable that the majority of French in- 
dustrial workers were on the government payroll. 

But few worked for their pay. Even after the gov- 
ernment ordered piece-work — which it failed to en- 
force — not more than a quarter of those on the rolls 
ever appeared at work, and these did little. The work 
laid out was along the lines of the modern cure for 
unemployment by governments and consisted of use- 
less earthworks outside Paris. By the next spring 
Paris was paying 31,000 men, as peasants had begun 
to flock to the shops, and by July, 1771, there were 
40,000. No more work than before was being done, 
however. 

Then the government lost patience and ordered the 
closing of the shops. But this was more easily said 
than done. The ^leaders of the people," Danton, 
Marat, and Desmoulins, started a super-revolution, 
and some six thousand of the "workers" gathered on 
the Champs de Mars in a demonstration, threatening 
the Assembly. The government finally had to order 
out the National Guard, and the "workers" fled after 
a dozen had been killed. 

JUST GOOD intentions! 

There was a considerable and well-received agitation 
in America for the same kind of thing recently — for 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 143 

government jobs for men out of employment. It 
could hardly be called even Radical. It was based on 
a real need, for there were hundreds of thousands out 
of work. It was intended to meet one of the most 
serious weaknesses of our present industrial system: 
that there is no certainty that a man able and willing 
to work can find employment. 

This little incident in Paris, so covered in the rush 
of great events that most histories do not even men- 
tion it, shows what might have happened if the plan 
had been tried — it is a clear-cut example of the re- 
sults of well-meant but inexpert tampering with the 
laws of economics and of psychology. 

The Frenchmen who tried the experiment demon- 
strated a very simple thing: that men will not work 
except to satisfy some need, and that when all the 
needs they have are met there is no impulse to labor. 

The corollary to that is equally simple: that until 
some other need than economic necessity is developed 
in mankind, it is not safe, economically, to remove that 
necessity, since very few of us will work for anything 
but material prosperity, in our present stage of civi- 
lization. This may be seen in less degree in the in- 
efficiency of the work done in "safe" government jobs 
the world over. 

This incident and its lesson are important in that 
they strike at the whole basis of modern revolutionary 
theory, for the avowed aim of the Revolution is "to 
abolish poverty"; in other words to assure economic 
support, to remove need. That seems a very humane 



144 LABOR AND REVOLT 

thing to do, but it is clear that if it is done by revolu- 
tion — assuming it is possible for revolution to do it — 
it will in itself defeat the Revolution, by depriving it 
of workers. The change can come with safety no 
faster than altruistic and unselfish motives for work 
spread among mankind. 

THE EXPERIMENT BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE 

It may be objected that this Parisian experiment 
was tried 130 years ago, and that humanity has ad- 
vanced since then. There are more recent experi- 
ments. Up to the breaking out of the World War the 
most successful practical Socialism was being carried 
on in Belgium by the great co-operative society there. 
It had communal production along with a minimum 
wage, insurance, and other safeguards against eco- 
nomic need. But its directors discovered that in their 
factories the product was often so small that the min- 
imum wage left a loss, so the Socialists themselves 
found it necessary to provide that there should be a 
minimum product before even the minimum wage was 
paid. 

"We could not," it was explained, "allow a given 
wage to all kinds of work and with all kinds of 
workmen. Some will trifle, gossip, waste their own 
time and that of others. Some men care more for 
the saloon, and some girls more for flirting and 
prinking than for their work. We are still too imper- 
fect to apply such a rule without modifications and 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 145 

exceptions. We must require a minimum product 
because they all have a minimum of wants to be satis- 
fied." ("The Social Unrest/' John Graham Brooks.) 
So Belgium's experiment supports that of France. 
There is evidence even nearer. Soviet Russia is the 
complete modern expression of all that Revolution 
stands for. There, if anywhere, we should find that 
the freedom of the worker, given through the re- 
moval of economic compulsion, has produced the un- 
compelled joy in labor which the Reds are promising 
us. Yet Lenin, in his "The Soviets at Work" says: 

The introduction of obligatory labor service should be 
started immediately. . . . 

We have introduced labor control as a law, but it is 
barely beginning to be realized, or even to penetrate the 
consciousness of the proletarian masses. 

Economic improvement depends on higher discipline of 
the toilers. 

We must introduce in Russia the study and the teaching 
of the Taylor system (even organized labor has opposed 
this in America). We must . . . require the use of com- 
pulsion so that the slogan of the dictatorship of the prole- 
tariat should not be weakened by the practice of a too mild 
proletarian government. 

Thus in Paris in 1791, in Belgium in 19 14, and in 
Russia in 19 19 Revolution failed in its fundamental 
principle — ^the removal of the compulsion to work. 
When the compulsion stopped, work stopped also ; the 
Revolution could support itself only by abandoning 
its principle and driving men to labor by force of some 
kind. 



146 LABOR AND REVOLT 

RE-INCARNATION OF FAILURES 

This is only one of the many lessons in history on 
the working out of Red theories. Few of the details 
of their panacea for "all the ills that oppress humanity" 
have not been experimented upon in that great labora- 
tory. The laws of the universe are harsh in many 
ways, and impose heavy penalties, and men have tried 
again and again to alter them. Yet in the Red propa- 
ganda to-day many theories find re-birth that have 
been tried and have failed. 

The Revolution to-day centers against economics, 
and the first of the economic laws which it attacks is 
that of supply and demand. The Revolution pro- 
poses to fix wages, fix prices, fix profits, to impose a 
fixed and stable relation between the three, to insure 
food and clothing at reasonable prices, to abolish 
economic law by legislation. 

This has always been one of the greatest promises 
and attempted performances of Revolution. During 
the French Revolution all prices, including that of 
labor, were fixed by the "law of the maximum." In- 
cidentally, labor unions were forbidden because they 
tried to interfere with it. In time this law became 
stablized on the basis that the price on goods should 
not exceed 33% above the price in 1790, and that 
on labor 50%. It was also provided that the manu- 
facturer, the distributor and the retailer could each 
make a 5% profit. There were special fixed prices 
on grain and bread. 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 147 

The rise In the cost of living soon defeated the 
law, however. By February, 1793, wages had risen 
from 15 to 40 sous a day (166% instead of 50%) 
beef had gone from 8 to 20 (166% instead of 33%). 
Bread was held to three sous by government order, 
and by the fact that the government had provided 
30,000,000 francs worth to be sold in Paris at half 
price. 

But even at these profiteer prices food was not to 
be had — the farmers would not sell at the fixed price, 
and demanded payment in proportion to the real value 
of their products. There followed seizure and forced 
sale at the legal prices. When the supplies in the 
cities were exhausted armed forces were sent into the 
country, to seize the peasants' food. As a result in 
the following year the peasants did not plant more 
than they could hide — many were ruined by the 
seizures and could plant nothing — and the famine was 
worse than ever. It was at its height when the counter- 
revolution came. 

In several French cities price fixing had been tried 
previously. Strassbourg in 1791 fixed the price of 
the 6-pound loaf at 12 sous. Within a month the re- 
fusal of the farmers to bring in grain had driven its 
price from 19 to 30 livres a sack. The same round 
was gone through in Russia in the first two years of 
the revolution. There were fixed prices, refusal of 
the farmers to sell, seizures, and finally refusal to 
produce. By November, 19 19, bread was selling in 
Moscow for the equivalent of $37.50 a loaf and butter 



I4B LABOR AND REVOLT 

at $150 a pound ! The Revolution has disproved itself 
— production ceases when the product cannot be sold 
for a fair price, and the law of supply and demand 
is avenged. 



HOW REDS MANUFACTURE BUSINESS PROSTRATION 

The price of goods under a Red government is com- 
plicated by another revolutionary theory put into prac- 
tice — the theory that value can be created by the sim- 
ple process of printing money. The Reds have 
always seen in the printing press a means of stopping 
all gaps in their economic structure. If there is not 
enough produced to pay the wages guaranteed — print 
money. If there is a deficit in government operation — 
print more money. If the abolition of wealth also 
abolishes taxes and leaves the government bankrupt 
— print still more money. 

The French Revolutionists called their paper money 
assignats. They put behind these all the power of 
the state and all its credit. The punishment for pass- 
ing them below par was at first a twenty-year im- 
prisonment, and when this proved ineffective, death. 
Yet by August, 1793, the value of the assignats had 
fallen to six francs paper for one of silver! Shortly 
after this the people were forced to exchange all their 
gold and silver for paper — all they could not hide — 
and their was no measure of the value of the paper 
left Outside France it was utterly worthless. 

It has been the same in Russia. The printing press 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 149 

has been working overtime, and the value of the Bol- 
shevist roubles has fallen even faster than the presses 
turned. Within a year after the Revolution came to 
power there had ceased to be an exchange quotation 
for them in any money market in the world, though 
there was still a certain value left in the paper put out 
by the Czar and even in that of the Kerensky govern- 
ment. By the end of 19 19 it cost more to print a 
rouble note than that note was worth. During the 
brief Bolshevik government of Bela Kun in Buda- 
pesth, even the ''white money" printed lavishly by the 
Revolutionaries had become worthless, and the coun- 
try fell back on barter. Thus a second economic 
law, that of "sound money,'' successfully defies the 
revolutionists. ' 

FORTUNES MADE BY REVOLUTION 

The French Revolution did not attempt any equal 
division of property — its efforts were limited to tak- 
ing from the rich. Land was given to the peasants, 
as in Russia, and that was the one economic change 
that became permanent, as it seems likely to be in 
Russia. But the French Revolution did demonstrate 
one thing about property in such times: if many rich 
were beggared, many new fortunes were made; there 
was a redistribution, but no more equality than before. 
In Russia the process has hardly gone far enough for 
appraisal, but it is clear that in spite of the attempted 
division of wealth the people are not only no better 



ISO LABOR AND REVOLT 

off, but that the bad management, clumsiness and 
leveling of ability have made them far worse off 
than ever before. 

Government ownership and operation are urged by 
many Radicals both for economy and to produce con- 
tentment among the workers. America had a sample 
of that on its railroads and telegraph lines during the 
war, though even that has not been enough to moder- 
ate the Reds' demands. The cost of this experiment 
is problematical, but is estimated at around two billion 
dollars, what with running deficit and run-down plant. 
The railroad workers have never been more discon- 
tented. The lesson America learned from the failure 
of the government ownership experiments in the days 
before the Civil War, when a dozen states plunged 
and lost in railways and canals, lasted America two 
generations and the new lesson will not be forgotten 
soon. The world is full of similar demonstrations. 

The Russian Revolution already has given evidence 
on the Red plan of doing away with experienced ex- 
ecutives — with brains. Lenin has had to get them, 
and pay them salaries which naturally produced a vio- 
lent protest from the Bolsheviks who had taken the 
agitators* promises at face value. He has apologized, 
and argues that it is a temporary expedient, though 
his private belief in the lack of ability of the masses, 
already quoted, shows the hypocrisy of this argument. 
So Russia to-day presents the spectacle of the old 
bosses, at the old jobs, with the old salaries, and with 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 151 

Red Guard detachments to insure that there are no 
labor troubles! 

Both the French Revolution and the Paris Com- 
mune of 1 87 1 experimented with turning the factories 
over to the workers, and in both cases the experi- 
ments failed long before the counter-revolution came 
to give an excuse for their failure. 

In short, wherever the Reds' economic theories have 
been tried they have failed. More, they have brought 
on want instead of prosperity, misery instead of hap- 
piness, complete economic paralysis. 

Russia is going back to capitalism — mostly Ger- 
man capitalism. Concessions are being granted for 
railway, mining and forestry development on terms 
that induce capitalists to take the tremendous risks in- 
volved in dealing with the Soviet government. With 
these, and with the abandonment of "democratic con- 
trol of industry" and with compulsory labor, the start 
toward some measure of prosperity is being made. 
Except for the fact that the peasants have the land, 
already there is little left in Russia of the economic 
revolution. 



SOCIALISM BECOMES A TRUST 

Moreover, wherever the Radicals have come into 
contact with practical affairs short of revolution, their 
theories have gone by the board, and they have come 
down to obedience to the same economic laws that gov- 



152 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ern the world, and on the poHtical side to a programme 
of reform only a little in advance of the general pro- 
gressive sentiment of the day. This is bitterly de- 
nounced by their comrades who are still dwelling in the 
realm of theory. 

The Belgium Co-operative Society has been men- 
tioned. It was begun by Socialists who held all the 
doctrinaire formulae : "the laborer shall have the whole 
product of his toil," "interest is theft," "to every man 
according to his needs, and from each according to 
his ability," "work by the day should replace piece 
work," and "machinery must not be permitted to dis- 
place labor." 

But in the Belgium Socialist-Co-operative works all 
these theories vanished before the compulsion of ex- 
perience. The "minimum product" required is noth- 
ing but piece work; their factories had as much of the 
best labor-saving machinery as they could afford; 
there were factories in which women worked ten 
hours, and factories in which men worked only eight; 
the wage scale varied for different reasons and often 
on the basis of the market price of the product; of 
course the "overhead" and "selling" expenses were 
deducted before the worker got his "total product," 
higher salaries were paid for managerial ability and 
paid, too, to Socialist comrades; the middleman was 
found to be not only necessary but worthy of his 
profit; interest was paid to the Socialist members 
themselves to encourage thrift and induce investment 
in the society funds; and finally leaders in the move- 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 153 

ment admitted that the wage system, or something 
very Hke it, would never be aboHshed! 

Socialism at work simply could not remain Social- 
ism. In fact, in Belgium, it became a trust, and was 
fought as such by the small competitors whose ruin 
it threatened ! 

So much discussion has been given to the economic 
failures of revolutionary theory because it is on these 
very things that the revolutionary agitation centers, 
particularly in America. There is a record of equal 
emphasis in the political field. 

THE TAMING OF THE RED HUNS 

The great Socialist political experiment, correspond- 
ing to that of Belgium in the economic field, was made 
in Germany. That in France was less important, both 
in extent of time and the amount of power that was 
won by the Socialists, but it worked in the same way. 

When German Socialists began to win parliamen- 
tary representation, about 1870, the theories held were 
much the same as those which are being shouted to-day 
over America. It was believed that the time was ripe 
for the social crisis and the triumph of the workers, 
that the end would come within a few years, before 
the close of the nineteenth century. The party leaders 
agreed that the change could not come peaceably, but 
must be by violence, and that the war was one of the 
international proletariat against all capital. Marx's 
teachings that as capitalism advanced wages would 



154 LABOR AND REVOLT 

lessen and the worker would sink lower and lower, 
and also that industries, including farming and retail 
t ade, would fall into fewer and fewer hands, were 
accepted implicitly. Finally there was a strong belief 
in missionary Atheism, a duty to "root out faith in 
God." It was an integral part of the Socialistic 
dogma. 

By the end of the nineteenth century — the date set 
by Bebel for the completion of the Revolution — every 
one of these tenets had been dropped or so modified 
that it was hardly to be recognized. 

The first compromise with existing society — and 
compromise with society is the great treason to the 
Revolutionists — came on the last question listed, that 
of Atheism. By 1891 the German SociaHsts had 
learned that religion was a thing too deeply rooted in 
the human soul for them to tear out, and the Protokol 
adopted that year at Halle declares it is a thing that 
must be left to every man's conscience. Since then 
they have gone further yet and among the leaders are 
many who have come to admit that Marx's whole basis 
of economic materialism is untrue. 

A second compromise with theory came over the 
matter of the socialization of farm lands. Germany 
is full of small farmers, and, Marx to the contrary 
notwithstanding, they did not disappear as capitalism 
advanced; neither did the great farms which he pre- 
dicted prove successful. The German Socialists 
learned first that it was poor tactics to outrage the 
land hunger of the peasants, and second that the basis 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 155 

of their theory was wrong. Social ownership of land 
went into the discard with missionary Atheism. 

Third came the realization that Capitalism had de- 
veloped more than two classes — proletarians and ex- 
ploiters. The "petty bourgeoisie/' the small traders, 
small manufacturers and professional men increased in 
a way that was most disturbing to the Marxian zealot 
during the last decades of the century. Middle class 
incomes were increasing, instead of decreasing as 
Marx had predicted. It became necessary, politically, 
for the proletariat to ally itself with the middle classes 
if it would hope for success. This meant the aban- 
donment of the "class-struggle" and the adoption of 
the far less thrilling programme of reform by parlia- 
mentary methods. 

The German Socialists did it, and ceased to be revo- 
lutionary in any real sense. 

It has seemed unwise to take the time and space 
here to cite in detail the statements of the German 
leaders which have marked this change of heart on 
their part. This has been done in full in Brook's "The 
Social Unrest." The denunciations of the Revolu- 
tionaries who, never having been in touch with prac- 
tical affairs, still hold to the old theories, are proof in 
abundance of the Germans' defection. 

To-day the German Majority Socialists are, in gen- 
eral, about in the same mental state as the progressive 
wing of the Republican party. Lenin, as a true 
prophet of Revolution, calls them "despicable servants 
of the Kaiser and the bourgeoisie," "traitors to Social- 



IS6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ism/* "agents of the bourgeoisie within the labor 
movements," "people without ideas, without character, 
without politics, without honor — a living embodiment 
of Philistine confusion," "advocates of bourgeoisie 
democracy." 

ABOLISHING GOD AND MARRIAGE 

There are other revolutionary ideas on which his- 
tory has given a verdict. The French Revolution tried 
to abolish God, by decree, but the decree was revoked 
within four months. The Revolution, the Paris Com- 
mune, and the Soviets have leveled their guns on 
marriage, and have succeeded only in making prostitu- 
tion a little more open. The Paris Commune tried 
government by committee — Soviets — and gave it up 
after varying the experiment half a dozen ways. 
France twice and Russia once have abolished army 
discipline, and have come back to a discipline so sav- 
age that it has revolted the most hardened officers of 
the imperialistic mercenary armies. Both France and 
Russia promised their people peace; France was at 
war for twenty-five years after the Revolution, Russia 
has been engaged in wars of conquest as well as of 
defense. Every revolution, started in the name of 
brotherhood, has had its Terror. The soils of Russia, 
Finland, Himgary are still wet with blood. 

Revolution, given power and opportunity, does not 
work. Its promises fail, its hopes turn to despair. 
Reforms it sometimes has brought, but reforms are 



THE REBIRTH OF OLD ERRORS 157 

anathema to it, and they come most often without its 
terrible aid. 

This is written large across the face of history, and 
the leaders of Revolution can read, have read that 
Writing. Yet they come to-day to America with the 
same bankrupt promises and the same blasted hopes. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 

The similarity in class revolutions — Tests of revolutionary ideal- 
ism — The failures of political freedom and equality, of 
popular rule, of equality of reward, of freedom for Labor, 
of freedom of speech, of a higher status for women — The 
results of these failures — The inevitableness of the Red 
Terror — Terrorism as a dogma — Plans for the Terror in 
America — The White Terror — Class Revolution in full 
flower. 

There is in all class revolutions a striking similarity 
in methods, procedure and phenomena which arrests 
attention — a similarity so great as to suggest that they 
follow some natural law, some inevitable path that 
takes them by the same means to the same end. Al- 
though they start from differing camses and are beset 
by varying circumstances, nevertheless they are so 
alike that the history of one, with changes of names 
and dates, might be taken for the history of each. 

The study of these methods and phenomena pro- 
vides a measure of the sincerity, stability, workable- 
ness and practical reactions of Revolutionary ideal- 
ism, as the results of those revolutions do of revolu- 
tionary economic theories. These ideals, as has been 
shown, center in equality and freedom. The two 

158 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 159 

necessarily interlock, and from them the Revolutionary 
propaganda derives its promises of the sharing of all 
wealth, the abolition of political and economic author- 
ity, complete openness of discussion and untrammel^ 
thought, equality of opportunity and of reward, a new 
and higher conscience, a better status for women and 
a spontaneous emotional and sex life. 

The working out of these ideals may best be seen 
in the French and Russian class revolutions. In the 
others they have not had time for such complete de- 
velopment, buc in each, so far as it has gone, the course 
taken and the results have been the same. 

FREEDOM FOR ONE CLASS ONLY 

The denial that even modem democracies provide 
any real equality, and the promise to attain it through 
the Revolution, is one of the fundamental features of 
the Red propaganda. With it goes political freedom. 
Yet it becomes clear at the very start that this equality 
and freedom are limited by the Revolution to its sup- 
porters. In the French Revolution "aristocrats" were 
from the first excluded from the franchise, in Russia 
the fact of laboring is a necessary qualification for 
voting. In both countries the definitions applying to 
the excluded classes were broadly interpreted, so that 
in practice a large part, and the most intelligent part, 
of the population had no share in the freedom, such 
as it was. 



i6o LABOR AND REVOLT 

HOW THE FIRST TERROR WAS ELECTED 

This freedom has been small. The leaders always 
soon have found themselves deserted by their follow- 
ers, and imable to hold control of even the restricted 
classes that were permitted to vote. The election of 
August 26, 1 79 1, may be taken as typical of those of 
the Revolution in France. For days before it the ex- 
treme revolutionaries ranged through Paris, arresting 
men of the moderate parties, or driving them from the 
city. In Lyons and Orleans there were massacres of 
moderates. On the night before the election there 
were 3,000 more arrests in Paris alone, and 60,000 
armed proletarians, many drawn from the country, 
swept the city. They were at the polls next day. It 
was thus that the authors of the Terror were elected. 

Russia has no general elections, but chooses its rep- 
resentatives through the Soviet. This has been con- 
trolled with equal ease. Testimony before the com- 
mittee of the U. S. Senate that investigated Bol- 
shevism showed that in scores of cases armed men 
from the Central Soviet had appeared in cities or prov- 
inces, thrown out those elected by the local Soviets, 
and demanded new elections, installed creatures of 
their own, or seized the power themselves. 

"The constitution of the Soviet Republic" says 
Lenin, "repudiates the h)rpocrisy of the formal equality 
of all human beings. . . . Only fools or traitors will 
insist on the formal equality of the bourgeoise.*' 

This is Revolutionary political freedom and equality. 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS i6i 



NOT EVEN EQUALITY IN LOOTING 

Then there Is equality of possession, and the Revo- 
lution in fact does always take away from those who 
have. The stolen wealth goes, too, to men who were 
poor. In the French Revolution it went to two classes, 
the looters and the agitators. Few looted enough to 
become rich for long, and no fortunes were founded 
in that way, but many of the agitators did acquire 
wealth, and kept it, laying the foundations of some of 
the very fortunes against which Socialism rails to-day. 
In Russia, too, the looters have been busy, and have 
stolen much, on the admission of the Soviet chiefs. 
Their stealings have shared the fate of other wealth 
in Russia, and vanished in the general misery. 

This working out of the "expropriation of the ex- 
propriators," as the Revolutionists describe the process ; 
this division of wealth according to strength to seize, 
is well enough understood by not a few of the Reds, 
and the idealistic language used becomes nothing but 
a cover for their greed of loot. But sometimes the 
mask slips. 

This is from the "New Solidarity": 

Po tiger ever made laws to protect the deer from his 
rapacity. No bandit ever made laws to protect the traveler 
from robbery. No banker ever made laws to protect the 
tenant from the usury of the banker-landlords. Each takes 
because of his strength that which he desires and leaves to 
moralists the work of theorizing on the beatitudes of law. 



i62 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Equality of reward? Leaders sharing the fare and 
the lodging of laborers and working only for the re- 
ward of applause and satisfaction in duty well done? 
It has been said that the Parisian agitators got rich. 
Danton voiced their creed : "We have made the Revo- 
lution and we intend to be paid for it." The leaders 
of the Commune of 1871 had lived sumptuously dur- 
ing the seige while the people starved, and when they 
saw the end nearing such "idealists" as Bugout, Endes 
and Urbain used their power to collect ready money. 
They were caught trying to escape with it. 

The Soviets provide that their chiefs, even Lenin 
and Trotsky, shall draw only the pay of a common 
soldier — 600 roubles a month in the earlier days of the 
Revolution. Yet they live in palaces, have motors 
waiting for pleasure as well as for business, eat 
dainties in the midst of the famine of their followers. 

Also they have sent millions to the Scandinavian 
banks — there is one report of a shipment of 30,000,000 
roubles, about $15,000,000, in gold. Nor has there 
ever been an accounting for a fund of some four or 
five millions which was in Russian Revolutionary 
hands in Germany when the World War broke. 

NO FREEDOM TO LOAF 

Then there is freedom of labor. This includes se- 
curity of employment. The first result of the Revolu- 
tion has been to release the workers, and it has pro- 
duced always an epidemic of laziness, a natural enough 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 163 

sequence to such propaganda as this: "The work- 
ing class got into the habit of work. It now finds it 
hard to give up the bad habit, even though only a 
little work is necessary" and " 'the less work the better/ 
is the motto which the workers must set themselves/' 
The Revolution in practice, however, abandons all 
talk of freedom of labor, as has been shown. Lenin 
says: 

To-day the same revolution — and indeed in the interest 
of Socialism — demands the absolute submission of the masses 
to the single will of those who direct the labor process. (The 
italics are his.) 

NO FREEDOM FOR AGITATION 

The world has resounded with the clamors of the 
Reds against the curtailment of freedom of speech and 
of the press during the war. Many who are not Reds 
believe there has been much to justify their protests. 
The fact that Bolshevism does not grant the. rights 
which its followers claim for themselves argues noth- 
ing against the justice of the Reds' demands. But it 
does indicate what may be expected under their rule. 

In the French Revolution the suppression of the 
opposition press was gradual. At first only "aristo- 
cratic" organs were banned, then the more moderate 
of the Revolutionary papers and writers fell into dis- 
favor, and during the final horror of the Terror the 
guillotine was used to enforce a complete censorship 
against all but the most rabid. 



i64 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Under the Paris Commune thirty-four papers were 
suppressed in a single day. 

In Russia, too, the beginnings of the restrictions 
were moderate. At first the only requirement was that 
all papers should publish the Soviet decrees. Soon a 
censorship on "counter-revolutionary propaganda" 
was introduced. This was followed by the suppression 
of single papers, together with a flanking movement, 
intended to force all but the Soviet-owned papers out 
of business, in a decree forbidding them to publish ad- 
vertisements. This failed to work, and wholesale 
suppressions of all papers not in thorough sympathy 
with the Bolshevists began. By July, 19 18, eight 
months after the Bolshevists won power, the suppres- 
sion was complete. Suppression of discussion, of as- 
sembly and of speech followed about the same course. 

EQUAL DEBASEMENT FOR WOMEN 

Another of the things in which the Reds* promises 
has been tested in practice is their treatment of 
women. The demand for absolute equality of both 
sexes is basic in the Red creeds, their promises on the 
subject are explicit. The official attitude of the Revo- 
lution on this subject may be considered the statement 
of Marx in the "Communist Manifesto": 

Bourgeois marriage is, in reality a system of w?ves in 
common, and thus at the most, what the Communists might 
possibly be reproached with is that they desire to produce, 
in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 165 

legalized community of women. For the rest it is evident 
that the abolition of the present system of production must 
bring with it the abolition of the community of women 
springing from that system, that is of prostitution both 
public and private. 

Marx*s argtiment for the abolition of the family, 
and the public, as opposed to private, education of 
children, of v^hich this is the climax, is too long to 
quote in full. 

Turning to the actual treatment of women under 
Revolutionary or extreme Radical systems, we find 
that in Australia, where the Labor power is complete, 
women do not get "equal pay for equal work," that 
their hours and working conditions are not protected 
any more fully than under "capitalistic" control, and 
that there is a distinct injury to their health under the 
industrial system there, which is particularly notice- 
able with girls just entering womanhood. Again, in 
the Socialist factories of Belgium, women did not get 
equal pay, and in many cases their hours were longer 
than those of men who also worked under Socialist 
control. 

Most striking is the example of Russia. Whether 
or not the "socialization of women," or "community of 
women" as Marx calls it, was actually attempted, 
women did find suffering and misery instead of im- 
provement. The amount of assault and abuse which 
the Russian women suffered was possibly no greater 
than it would have been in any other country where 
police authority suddenly disappeared, but it was 



i66 LABOR AND REVOLT 

extreme. Certainly there was "equality'* in the sense 
that no consideration was shown to women of any 
class. The attempt to take children away from home 
influences is part of the Soviet law. Finally, the 
Soviet ordered women drafted for army service on 
the same basis as men, though not for use on the 
fighting front. 

Such is the status the Reds give woman — such the 
fulfillment of their promises. 

!A^nd so on. 

The Revolution's idealism fails to stand, as its 
theories fail. Freedom works out to irresponsibility, 
and force must be used if the social machinery is to be 
kept running. Equality does not work at all, either 
with the people or the leaders. In the last analysis 
the power rests with the strong — ^not with the many — 
with the "armed proletariat" which is never more than 
a small part of even the whole proletariat, and power 
is wielded by those who can buy or persuade the loy- 
alty of this part of a part of the nation. 

WHEN TERROR IS THE ONLY HOPE 

So the crumbling of the strength of the Revolution 
begins as soon as it wins power. The intellectuals 
quickly see the destruction of idealism in Revolution 
triumphant. The masses starve, and the loot dwindles. 
There are attempts to purchase loyalty by gifts of free 
bread, then comes control of elections by force and 
fraud to hold the dictators in power. But trickery 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 167 

and stolen votes cannot long give despots a feeling 
of security, when every trick diminishes the number 
of their supporters. 

So the Terror is launched. 

It was only after nearly three years that the French 
Revolution reached this point, the Commune reached 
it in three months; the Soviet in six, and in Finland 
and Hungary the leaders started the Terror the in- 
stant they had power. 

It has always been common in civil wars for the 
victors to proscribe and execute numbers of the lead- 
ers of the vanquished. But it has remained for the 
Bolshevists, past and present, to carry on a progres- 
sive proscription, which finally reached into their own 
ranks. 

So inevitable is the Terror in the class-war revolu- 
tions that Red leaders have come to regard it as neces- 
sary and right. Lenin defends it by citing the wars 
which occur under the other forms of government, 
which he declares will cease under Bolshevism. He 
sets their losses off against those of Terrorism. His 
followers in America plan to use it from the start to 
establish their rule, and the following programme was 
actually worked out for use in an American city by 
the Reds: 

All city officials to be slaughtered. 

All persons not in sympathy with the revolution to be 
banished. 

All banks to be seized and the funds distributed among 
the reds. 



i68 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Marriage to be abolished. 

Women to become common property. 

Churches to be destroyed. Atheism to take the place of 
religion. 

Capitalists to be killed, and their property to become the 
basis of economic communism. 

There comes a time, in all such revolutions, when 
the Terror breeds desperation, and reaction follows. 

Here, for the first time, comes a divergence in the 
records of Revolution. In France the reaction from 
the Terror overthrew the Revolution, opened the door 
for Napoleon, and destroyed many of the real gains 
for personal liberty which had been won in the pre- 
ceding years. The rulers of the Terror had foreseen 
the catastrophe, and Robespierre was trying to prepare 
a return to sanity when he was overthrown. His death 
marked the end of the proletarian phase of the Revo- 
lution. In Russia the leaders have had more success. 
They have checked the Terror, and by the abandon- 
ment of revolutionary principles all along the line are 
bringing a turn toward prosperity, which may be in 
time to save them from violent overthrow. 



THE BEAST BRED OF THE TERROR 

In every case except that of Russia the Revolu- 
tionary cycle has not ended without a "White Terror," 
an orgy of reprisals and of slaughter inflicted by the 
counter-revolutionists when they regain power. 
France, both in the Revolution and in the Commune, 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 169 

felt it, Finland felt it, and Hungary In Russia, 
wherever the Soviet forces have been driven out, its 
victims have died. Though shorter, it is no less mur- 
derous than the Red Terror; in the Commune and in 
Finland those who died by the White Terror out- 
numbered ten to one those who died by the Red, and 
the slayers in both cases were largely mobs formed 
of the proletariat the Revolution had been supposed 
to save! 

This, too, must be reckoned as an almost certain 
part of the cost of Revolution through class-war. It 
is even less possible to condone it than the Red Terror, 
for it is perpetrated in revenge and not in defense, and 
by those who, coming from the better classes, cannot 
claim the allowances that must be accorded to misery 
and ignorance. 

But a part of the blame for it, too, must go back to 
those who unleash the horrors of class-war. The 
whole record shows this kind of warfare is a thing 
which, once started, will always go to the point where 
flesh and blood can endure no more. The "moderates** 
are left behind early in its progress, and the very hopes 
they have helped to foster, because of the impossibility 
of their fulfillment, drive it from extreme to greater 
extremes. "The Revolution" becomes a dogma, it de- 
mands everything, devours everything, permits every- 
thing to its votaries. It can neither be checked nor 
controlled. The discontent which must be cultivated 
if the Revolution is to be started escapes the manage- 
ment of its authors: the hopes which have been excited 



170 LABOR AND REVOLT 

grow even while they are being disappointed. Sus- 
picion turns against the men who bred it in the people. 
Revolution, preached as a cure, becomes a habit. 

REVOLUTION IN FULL FLOWER 

Here is a creed which marks Revolution in full 
flower. It is a proclamation issued by Collot 
d'Herbois, an emissary sent by the Committee of 
Public Safety in Paris in 1793 to Lyons, which pre- 
ferred a different kind of freedom from that then 
being enforced by the guillotine in the capital. It is 
his appeal to the people of Lyons to continue the 
Revolution, and it succeeded to the extent of causing 
the deaths of some 6,ooq men and women: 

Everything is allowed to those who act in sympathy with 
the Revolution; you were oppressed, you must annihiliate 
your oppressors; the Republic will have none but free men 
on its soil and it is determined to extirpate all others; thirst 
for righteous vengeance is your imperative duty; if you 
are patriots you will recognize your friends and bring all 
others to prison, whence they will carry their own heads 
to the scaffold. 

Whoever possesses more than is necessary to his existence 
must give it up to pay the cost of the war and the Revolu- 
tion; all superfluity is a patent and insolent violation of the 
rights of the people; more especially seize all clothes, shirts 
and shoes which may be useful for the army, and above all 
things let the so-called precious metals, wherever you can 
find them, pour into the treasury. Finally remember that the 
Republican has no other god but his country, no worship 
but that of freedom, no morals but those of nature, and use 



THE PRICE OF RED SUCCESS 171 

all your power to overthrow every kind of fanaticism 
forever." 

The failures of Revolution measure its cost. They 
are, they have been in every class-war, misery and 
starvation, vast destruction of property, death and 
Terror, and the suppression of every form of liberty 
and freedom. Every Revolution has swept away in 
the space of months the heritage of centuries and none 
has brought a tithe of its promises. 

THE COST OF REVOLUTION IN AMERICA 

This chapter has dealt only with failures and costs, 
yet for all these, history accounts the French Revolu- 
tion glorious, and the world the gainer by it. It gave 
land to the peasant, and an ideal to the world. The 
Russian Revolution, too, has given land to the peas- 
ants and it, too, may add to our ideals. It is worth 
noting that in both countries the good that remains 
was accomplished in the early periods of the revolu- 
tions — in the periods before the class-war was 
launched. But it is just possible that in neither case 
could the good have been saved without all the horrors 
that followed. 

But we are facing a demand for Revolution in 
America. It would cost more here than it has in either 
France or Russia, both because our prosperity, which 
would be wrecked, is greater, and because our liberties, 
which would be destroyed, are broader. America has 
never counted either property or life of more value 



172 LABOR AND REVOLT 

than progress, but she has counted her Hberties sacred 
above all things. Those very liberties guarantee her 
means of progress without violence or class-war. 

The costs of Revolution are staggering. America 
is asked to abandon her orderly advance and to pay 
those costs, her wealth and her liberties, not for any 
new idealism, nor for reasoned progress, but for a new 
adventure with ideals and with theories that have been 
tested again and again, and that history, so far as it 
can be read, and practical reasoning as well, prove 
impossible. 



PART III 
UNLEASHING THE WHIRLWIND 



CHAPTER X 

THE RED BORERS 

The resurrection of Revolution — New idea behind new hope — 
Long failure in America — The challenge to conservative 
Organized Labor — Gompers' position — The sudden change 
in Red strategy — The steel strike and the uncovering of the 
"borers from within" — Great success of the new method — 
Hope of bringing on Revolution through it. 

When the American Reds, at the close of the 
Worid War, suddenly abandoned the slow programme 
of Revolution by education, they were inspired not 
only by new hope, but by a new idea. The educa- 
tional programme had been adopted largely, if not 
solely, because of the belief that there was no hope 
of success by violence — ^by "direct action." 

The new idea in Revolution gave that hope. It was 
no hare-brained, fanatic scheme of tenement plotters 
but a programme based on a carefully planned use of 
known conditions. It offered more than hope — it of- 
fered a reasonable chance of success. 

The factors on which this chance hung were very 
simple. The arch-Reds whose brains direct the Revo- 
lution had only to make the connection between them. 
They saw in Russia a small faction — less than eight 
per cent of the nation — seize and hold control. That 

175 



176 LABOR AND REVOLT 

faction was the class of industrial workers. The Reds 
saw in America the same class disaffected, restless, 
apparently almost ripe for an outburst. Here, more- 
over, that class was more than thrice as strong in num- 
bers as in Russia, and a dozen times as strong in in- 
teUigence, organization and political and industrial 
power. Finally, in America far more than in Russia, 
the whole life of the nation depended literally on 
Labor, for our machinery of living had become so 
complicated that even a slight disarrangement carried 
terrifying dangers. 

The opportunity was plain; if American Labor 
could be turned to Revolution success seemed sure. 

In the years before the war several experiments had 
been tried by Reds in the use of direct revolutionary 
action through Labor, but all had failed to do more 
than local and temporary damage. Excepting the 
occasional Anarchist groups and their activities, the 
most important of these experiments were based on 
the teachings and leadership of Daniel De Leon, the 
founder of Bolshevism. 

The Socialist Labor Party, the first vehicle of his 
activities, has never been able to number thirty thou- 
sand votes in the United States. Out of it grew the 
Industrial Workers of the World (L W. W.). But 
till the war came, this, too, was almost a negligible 
thing. At one time half a dozen powerful labor 
unions were in some degree affiliated with it, but by 
19 1 4 most of them had dropped away, its followers 
had been expelled from the Socialist Party, and it 



THE RED BORERS 177 

probably did not have 10,000 members with dues paid, 
though it claimed many more. 

THE RED PLAN TO SEDUCE LABOR 

The whole policy of the Radicals at this time was 
to stay outside the ranks of Organized Labor, to wean 
the workers away from it if possible, and to fight it to 
the utmost. The failure of this policy and of the 
I. W. W. plan in general was expressed in November, 
19 14, by William Z. Foster, an active I. W. W. 
worker, in a letter published in the I. W. W. organ 
"Solidarity": 

I am satisfied from my observations that the only way for 
the I. W. W. to have the workers adopt the principles of 
revolutionary unionism — which I take is its mission — is to 
give up the attempt to create a new labor movement, turn 
itself into a propaganda league, get into the Organized Labor 
movement, and by building up better fighting machines 
within these old unions than those possessed by our re- 
actionary enemies, revolutionize the unions, even as our 
French syndicalist fellow-workers have so successfully done 
iwith theirs. 

It was obvious, before mid-summer of 19 19, that 
the Reds had abandoned their plan of keeping outside 
Organized Labor and had definitely begun an attack 
designed to use that Giant as the means of bringing on 
the Revolution. First in scattering instances, then in a 
flood, came news items telling of Red agitators foment- 
ing labor troubles, and aggravating those that broke 



178 LABOR AND REVOLT 

out without their aid. They did not abandon their 
outside attack, but used either or both as the case 
served. 

The first of these radical-labor disturbances was the 
great semi-revolutionary strike in Seattle, which 
failed so conspicuously. Another attempt was made 
in Winnipeg and missed seizing control of the city and 
provincial governments by the narrowest of margins. 
A similar attempt in Toronto died in birth, and the 
plans for Omaha broke down on the eve of the day 
set. At the same time there was an outbreak of sym- 
pathetic strikes, and much talk of general strikes. But 
the results of these were not encouraging, and this 
phase of the movement gave way to another. 

By Fall there had ceased, almost, to be talk of Revo- 
lution. Yet the Reds were still at work among the 
laborers. And in almost every disturbance that in- 
volved Labor the Reds were heard from. 

The new phase centered on an attempt to win cori- 
trol of the American Federation of Labor. 

ORGANIZED LABOR OPPOSES DESTINATION 

The Federation is not, and never has been, in any 
degree revolutionary. Its quarrel with Capital has 
been over the division of the profits of industry, its 
criticism of the government has been based on charges 
that Capital has been permitted to take too large a 
share of those profits. It believes in the Capitalist sys- 
tem of industry, believes in our democratic form of 



THE RED BORERS 179 

government, and believes that far deeper than the 
quarrel over profits is the common interest of both 
Capital and Labor, of all involved in industry, to make 
that industry prosperous, so that there may be profits 
to quarrel over. 

Whatever the changes to which some of its leaders 
may look forward in industry, they know that these 
must come by evolution, after careful experiment. 
While they set no limit to their hopes, their actions are 
always strictly limited to the direct possibilities of the 
individual situation. Further, they believe in good 
faith as the cornerstone of relations between men, and 
hold contracts sacred. 

This attitude has been stated repeatedly by Samuel 
Gompers, who has been Organized Labor's leader for 
a generation: 

Oiir movement is of a constrictive nature. I would not 
turn over, if I could with my hands, our system of govern- 
ment to replace it by a fanciful notioned, already outlined, 
patented idea of a panacea for all the ills of mankind. I 
think I am possessed of that knowledge and understanding 
that the course of the human family is one of growth and 
development, and that ultra-revolution brings reaction in its 
wake. 

And again: 

I am opposed, as is Organized Labor of America, to any 
destructive policy. There is nothing that is worth while 
maintaining that I would aid or abet in destroying. 

Our policy, our work, our method, our ideas and our ideals 
are to build, to construct, to grow, to help in the develop- 



i8d labor and revolt 

ment of the highest and best in the human family; to make 
to-day a better day than yesterday, to make to-morrow and 
to-morrow's to-morrow each a better day than the one that 
has gone before. That evolutionary process of progress and 
development is the basis for the opportunity for freedom, 
justice and democracy. 

That is the constructive policy of progress. If that policy 
of the American labor movement is opposed and success- 
fully opposed then our work, our activities and our move- 
ment will be sent to destruction. 

In regard to the relations with Capital he has said: 

Speaking for Organized Labor, I want to say that not one 
man or woman of the millions in our ranks wants a con- 
flict with Capital. Wars always are disastrous — always 
create havoc. Peaceful conditions in the industrial world — 
that is our hope and our aim. We want to establish the 
best possible relations with Capital, under the same condi- 
tions that existed in the war days when a solid, unbreak- 
able front in our industrial army at home was absolutely 
vital to the success of our military forces. 

But though Labor wants peace, it will sacrifice that yearn- 
ing if any effort is made by industrial autocracy in this coun- 
try to menace the rights and the freedom of the working 
class of America. Fair play, fair dealing and the right to 
live decently from the toil of our daily labors — that is what 
we ask. It isn't much — and it should be granted ungrudg- 
ingly by Capital. 

If it isn't — and if Capital intends to oppress Labor and 
take from it the sweets that Labor has earned and won in 
the world war — then Labor must resist — and will resist — to 
the utmost of its power. 

The Revolution challenges this position by the 



THE RED BORERS i8i 

promise to secure at one blow all that Labor can 
dream of winning in centuries. 



LENIN LEADS ATTACK ON LABOR 

It is natural that Lenin, chief of the Bolshevists, 
should sound the key for this challenge. In his "A 
New Letter to the Workers of Europe and America" 
he speaks of "traitors to Socialism, such as Samuel 
Gompers, Webb, Renaudel and Vandervelde. Here 
we have that upper stratum of the working class which 
has been bought by the bourgeoisie, and which we, the 
Bolsheviks, . . . used to call *the agents of the bour- 
geoisie within the labor movement,' and which in 
America is more appropriately designated by an ex- 
pression that is magnificent in its expressiveness and 
striking truthfulness, 'labor lieutenants of the cap- 
italist class/ " 

Evidently Lenin — Bolshevism — recognizes enemies 
in Mr. Gompers and the Federation. 

In its attack on the American Federation of Labor 
the Revolution specifically urges the abandonment of 
the Federation's method of unionization by trades or 
crafts, in favor of the "one big union," uniting all 
workers of whatever craft — a method far less flexible 
for industrial progress, and far more powerful for 
class-evolution by force. 



i82 LABOR AND REVOLT 



REDS REVOLT AGAINST SKILL 

Besides the revolt against the sane position of the 
federation, the Revolutionaries are revolting also 
against its recognition of skill as a thing of value. 
This is one of the reasons for the attack on craft 
unionism, and is based on the typically Bolshevist idea 
that there shall be no higher reward for skilled than 
for unskilled labor — "perfect equality." The craft 
unions, being composed chiefly of men skilled in the 
same trade, are declared an "aristocracy." 

A final challenge to the Federation is made by the 
open sentiment of alienism. The American Federa- 
tion of Labor is accused of trying to keep American 
advantages for Americans, of excluding the foreigner 
from the skilled and better paid trades. The Federa- 
tion would hardly deny the charge, and there are signs 
of a split in the Labor ranks along these lines. The 
New York Call, a Socialist daily, has declared that this 
cleavage is inevitable. It boasts that the alien laborer 
has been the chief leader of strikes and instigator of 
industrial unrest. 

Until the recent change in tactics the challenge of 
the Radicals to the Federation took the form of rival 
organizations outside its ranks, and claiming to repre- 
sent the workers. Such are the I. W. W. and the W. 
I. I. U. (which are not properly labor unions at all, 
but revolutionary organizations), and more recently 
the One Big Union. There have been also a consider- 
able number of unions so radical, chiefly syndicalist, 



THE RED BORERS 183 

that they have refused to affiliate with the Federation. 
There are 140 of these Hsted, the biggest being the 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. 

'^PEACEFUL penetration'^ BY REDS 

The steel strike of 19 19 is best worth studying of 
all these that show the methods employed in the new 
Red policy of working in and through Labor, for it 
presents many features which may fairly be called typ- 
ical of the whole campaign. 

The justice of the strike is not brought in question 
here. From the point of view of Organized Labor 
there was every reason for attempting to form a union 
in the steel industry, and to force the recognition of 
that union. This has long been an ambition of the 
labor leaders and the Federation definitely started the 
campaign at its 19 17 convention. A committee was 
appointed to open headquarters in Pittsburgh. It is 
the methods of this committee, and particularly those 
adopted in the closing months before the crisis, and of 
the strike itself, that show the hand of the Reds. 

The guiding spirit of that committee was the Wil- 
liam Z. Foster, ex-I. W. W. man, whose belief that 
Radicalism could work best from inside Organized 
Labor has already been quoted. He himself took his 
own advice, and was soon affiliated with the A. F. of 
L. Nominally subordinate on the committee, he actu- 
ally controlled it. 

John Margolis, counsel for the I. W. W., defined 



i84 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Foster's position in his testimony before the committee 
of the U. S. Senate that investigated the strike. 

"Foster is a borer from within/' he declared. 

Under Foster's guidance the work of organization 
was concentrated on the aliens in the industry. 
Whence these men got the assurances that were given 
them has not been proved, but many of them believed 
—they were told — that the strike was a prelude to a 
revolution like Russia's, that they would seize and own 
the steel plants, and that they would soon control the 
government. 

The personnel of the organizing staff was of the 
Reddest. The testimony of Labor itself is conclusive 
on that. The Pittsburgh Labor World printed a 
letter from James E. Morgan, a roller in a Youngs- 
town mill, in which he listed twenty-three of the strike 
agitators as men with "transcontinental records.'' 

"Some of these men are noted I. W. W.'s," he 
writes, "and are outspoken Bolshevists. These men 
have not fooled the English speaking mill workers in 
this valley, and we will soon show Mr. Foster what 
we think of a strike movement that he or any other 
Red controls." 

STRIKE BECOMES A RED DEMONSTRATION 

The L W. W. and the Russian Workers' Union, an 
even more frankly Bolshevist organization, got behind 
the strike. In Gary, pamphlets urging the workers to 
seize the city were circulated, and subsequent raids by 



THE RED BORERS 185 

Federal officers found firearms in quantities, as well 
as the most incendiary literature. Major General 
Wood declared the foreign-born Reds were entirely to 
blame for the disorders which it required regular 
troops to put down. Anarchist groups appeared well 
supplied with money, and helped make all the trouble 
possible. 

In short, the steel sti:ike became very largely a Red 
demonstration. Contrary to the intention of the Fed- 
eration leaders, Foster used methods which are foreign 
to their whole spirit and tradition. But since they 
themselves had started the work of unionizing, he was 
able to force their hands throughout. It is an open 
secret that they were not displeased with the failure 
of the strike, and Foster's consequent loss of influence. 

The steel strike is only one instance. The same 
methods of forcing the hands of conservative and tried 
union leaders were used in bringing on the great coal 
miners' strike. "Borers from within" worked their 
way into influential places, then put before the men a 
programme so alluring that the old officials dared not 
oppose it. The 'American Coal Miner, the union 
paper, however, warned the men: 

Down underneath all of this class-arraignment you will 
find the insidious doctrine of the Bolshevist, and other cults 
and isms. They have been picked up body and boots from 
European soil and transplanted in the hope that they will 
grow. We want none of it. Capital, with mighty few ex- 
ceptions, has long recognized the importance of labor and 
labor has recognized the importance of capital — each being 
interdependent. 



i86 LABORS AND REVOLT 

Another strike with Red provocation was that of 
the dock workers in New York, where 100,000 men, 
inflamed by I. W. W. agitators, walked out in defi- 
ance of union orders. A second instance in New York 
was in the bricklayers* union, where the Radicals got 
control and forced the breaking of the contract with 
the employers. A third was in the pressmen's union, 
where the Radicals brought on a strike in violation of 
agreement, and of orders from the international offi- 
cers, which resulted in the revoking of their charter. 
In Chicago Simon O'Donnell, president of the Build- 
ing Trades Council, complained publicly of the I. W. 
W. activity and estimated that the Reds were recruit- 
ing a hundred men a day. The Seattle strike was 
brought on only after the Radicals had gained com- 
plete control, though the unions stayed inside the Fed- 
eration. In Winnipeg the unions seceded from the 
Federation before starting their revolutionary strike. 

The list might be extended almost indefinitely. 
Everywhere the Radicals are now boring, getting in- 
side Organized Labor, and making trouble. 

Through all this the Radicals are doing more than 
merely to urge strikes; to dislocate industry. They 
are also urging the most extreme demands, demands 
which it is impossible for employers to meet, and 
therefore certain to cause trouble. Such an instance 
is that in the coal strike, where a reduction of working 
hours to thirty a week, and an increase of sixty per 
cent in pay were demanded at the same time, not as a 
basis for negotiation, but as an ultimatum. The ex- 



THE RED BORERS 187 

tensive breaking of contracts under Red influence has 
already been cited. 

MISSIONARIES OF DISRUPTION 

Another evidence of the plan of the Reds to get 
control of Organized Labor appears in the rather sud- 
den prominence in the labor movement of many men 
and women who are Radicals, but have never been 
manual workers. A full list of these would fill many 
pages. Following are some of the more prominent. 
None of them, so far as can be learned, has ever been 
a wage earner: 

Benjamin Shiplakoff, a Socialist, organizer of the 
clothing workers. 

Jacob Panken, also a Socialist, an organizer in the 
same trade. 

Max Pine, Socialist, active in the United Hebrew 
Trades. 

Arturo Giovannitti, Syndicalist, active in many 
strikes. 

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Syndicalist, I. W. W., gen- 
eral strike agitator. 

Joseph Schlossberg, Socialist, active in clothing 
trades. 

Vincent St. John, I. W. W. leader, labor agitator. 

Kate Richards O'Hare, Communist, general agi- 
tator. 

Of those who, while not directly connected with any 
labor organization, have been active in carrying on 



i88 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Radical agitation there may be mentioned: John 
Reed, Communist and Bolshevik apologist; Santeri 
Nuorteva, representative of the Russian Soviet Gov- 
ernment ; Hugh Solomon, and certain lawyers ; Bertha 
Mailly of the Rand School, and Crystal and Max 
Eastman. The full list would include hundreds of 
names. 

The success of these people has been phenomenal. 

*Out of seventy strikes called recently," John Mar- 
golis (I. W. W.) boasted on October 19, 19 19, "sixty- 
two have been unauthorized by the A. F. of L. This 
would indicate a pronounced state of unrest and dis- 
satisfaction." Or of successful agitation. 

LABOR LEADER LIFTS THE CURTAIN ' 

Perhaps the most startling revelation and confirma- 
tion of the Red leaders' purposes was given by James 
P. Holland, president of the New York State Federa- 
tion of Labor, when on the witness stand before the 
Lusk Committee in New York City. He said that 
there had been a good deal of violent talk at the meet- 
ings of the Central Federated Union of New York, 
and named one labor official, James J. Bagley of the 
Pressmen's Assistants' Union, as particularly rabid. 

"He would favor any form of government that 
would overthrow the United States Government," said 
Mr. Holland. "He preached not alone to overthrow 
the government, but to smash up the printing presses." 

"Have you ever heard anyone express determination 



THE RED BORERS 189 

to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat?" was 
asked. 

"That has been preached, and is being preached 
every day, so far as some of the radical organizations 
are concerned. The method of the Radicals has been 
to send agitators to industrial centers whenever a 
legitimate strike has been called, with the idea of 
preaching sedition and the overthrow of the govern- 
ment. . . . Every one of the Socialist papers claim 
that they own the labor movement." 

"Overthrow the government" — "claim that they 
own the labor movement." That is the key to the rev- 
olutionary agitation in America to-day. They have 
abandoned the slow methods of education, abandoned 
the wish for reform, abandoned the hope even of Revo- 
lution by the conversion of a majority of Americans 
to it, abandoned peaceful methods. 

They have turned to Labor, whose coming power 
they see with perfect clearness, and are definitely and 
skillfully prodding it to Revolution. This is the plan 
which gives them a chance of success, which makes 
the present Red campaign a real menace. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SEEPING POISON 

Pacifists as a field for Red propaganda — The kind of appeal 
used — Penetration of reform organizations through pacifist 
aid — Attempts to use these to cultivate unrest — Exploitation 
of educators, of the pulpit, of rich and idle women — The 
interlocking directoraate of Radicalism — Penetration into 
government services. 

When a few Reds found their way into the organ- 
izations that opposed America's entry into the war and 
increasing numbers joined them in the obstructionist 
bodies that tried to hamper us in the conflict they came 
into contact with a class of people who had hitherto 
been outside the range of their influence. These were 
the religious and sentimental pacifists who made up a 
large part of these bodies. 

Much could be said in behalf of people of these 
types. They are utterly sincere, they felt with a vicari- 
ous sensitiveness all — and perhaps a little more than 
all — of the horrors of war, they are intellectualized to 
the point where force has come to them to seem unreal 
and ineffective and ideas the only important power in 
the world. They were prepared to suffer, and were 
made to suffer, for their adherence to their convic- 
tions. That their activities were harmful, that they 

190 



THE SEEPING POISON 191 

obstructed progress and made the victory of right and 
of civiHzation more difficult, does not necessarily de- 
tract from their character — only from their co-ordina- 
tion with and understanding of the facts of existence. 
The astute Red leaders were quick to see that these 
people, by the very nature of their outlook upon life, 
offered a fertile field for their propaganda, and they 
promptly focused attention on them. The "parlor 
Red" has always existed, but those who were more or 
less in this class before the war had mostly deserted 
the Radicals when the latters' lack of patriotism be- 
came apparent. Thus men like Stokes, Walling, 
Spargo, and Bohn were among the most active work- 
ers for Allied victory, and their connection with the 
Reds seems permanently broken. Their patriotism left 
the ranks of the "intellectuals" among the Reds thin 
indeed, and the latter were rejoiced and spurred by 
this pacifist field for recruiting. 

SUGARED POISON FOR IDEALISTS 

The appeal which can be made by extreme Radical- 
ism to people of this type of mind is great. The Revo- 
lution preaches high ideals of brotherhood and peace, 
ideals to which any humane man or woman must sub- 
scribe. It can point truthfully to many abuses and to 
much misery in the world as it exists to-day. It prom- 
ises an assured cure for these evils on the basis of 
those ideals. What more is needed to convince people 
whose sympathies are acute, whose whole mental atti- 



192 LABOR AND REVOLT 

tude leads them to consider ideas superior to facts 
and who are unable to put a practical check on the 
process of pure logic? 

Most people of this class are active in reform work 
of various kinds, and in humanitarian movements. 
Working on them, with considerable success, the Reds 
wormed their way into these reform and philanthropic 
organizations, which afforded a still wider field for 
their propaganda. There is hardly a society or asso- 
ciation in the United States which might in any way 
be twisted to serve the ends of Revolution into which 
the Reds have not crept. 

Once inside these bodies, many of which are of 
great value, the Reds seek to transform into destruc- 
tive activity what was originally sane criticism of 
present conditions and to change reform into Revolu- 
tion. They attempt to join the hands of all those who 
feel that they have any kind of a grievance or cause of 
complaint against society into a coalition for the de- 
struction of the world, simply because society has not 
yet conquered every evil. 

BORERS INTO PHILANTHROPY 

A list of the Red forces made in the summer of 
19 19 indicates the success which their tactics have 
won. The activities of the Reds were too wide to 
make the list complete, as it was desired to know the 
full record of each man or woman considered. For 
the purpose then, only the Reds operating in and 



THE SEEPING POISON 193 

around New York were taken, and only officers of the 
war-obstructionist activities. It was found that 86 
Radicals had been officers in these organizations, of 
whom 18 classed as Socialists, 20 as Syndicalists, 19 
as Bolshevists, 9 as Anarchists, and 20 as general agi- 
tators of direct action, many of these being I. W. W.'s. 

The connections of these 86 Radicals were carefully 
traced. As was natural most of them led into the anti- 
war organizations: 4 were straight pacifists, 36 had 
been connected with active war obstruction, 63 were 
members of the peace-at-any-price societies, and 13 of 
the group of women's peace societies that grew out of 
the Ford peace trip. 

The penetration into organizations in no way con- 
nected with the war, but having possibilities of foment- 
ing unrest, is more startling. Sixteen had worked 
their way into political groups that were simply "lib- 
eral" — not in any way revolutionary; 32 had joined 
the societies engaged in attempting to make this coun- 
try take up the burden of trying to free Ireland, India, 
and Egypt from British rule; 21 were in organizations 
working with or for the Negro, only one (strangely 
enough) had joined a birth control society; 42 were 
in the group which is trying to exploit Organized 
Labor, and not many of these were or ever had been 
workers. 

In all there were 228 memberships in various or- 
ganizations held by these 86 people. There were 44 
different organizations involved, so that they averaged 



194 LABOR AND REVOLT 

five Radicals each in their membership, and many of 
the Radicals held offices. 

In the years just before the world war there was 
much discussion of the "inter-locking directorates" of 
Wall Street, and America learned the tremendous pos- 
sibilities of evil which such a co-ordination of power 
holds. Here we find the Reds in a similar **inter- 
locking directorate," with equal menace, and one that 
is reaching out to corrupt and use innocent people. 

cat's paws for the revolution 

This intellectual propaganda of the Reds has shown 
its effect through three main classes of people. 

First, perhaps, by reason of their influence, should 
be placed the educators. The stress of the war re- 
vealed an alarming amount of intellectual dry-rot in 
our colleges and universities. Combined with the 
habit our students had for many years of going to 
Germany, where they were subjected to the poisonous 
teachings dispensed by the Kaiser's highly corrupted 
educational system, is the "academic point of view" 
that the professorial mind is so likely to develop. 
There were literally hundreds of instructors who were 
converts to "kultur" or to the pacifism which it taught 
as a means of making its militarism more certain of 
success. It was easy to turn into Radicalism the anti- 
Americanism which the war developed in these people. 

A second and allied class has been the preachers, 
similarly infected by the intellectual currents of Ger- 



THE SEEPING POISON 195 

man origin, similarly easy to turn against America, 
and guilty moreover of a vast ignorance of industrial 
and political conditions and problems. 

The third class is that described by John Reed, the 
"Left Wing" Socialist, as "wealthy women in New 
York who have nothing to do with their money except 
something like that" — financing Radical propaganda. 
They are hardly dangerous, as the money would come 
from other sources if they refused to supply it. 

WARRING REDS BECOME FRIENDS 

Another advantage which came to the Reds througH 
their joint anti-war activities was an acquaintance with 
one another. As has been said, Radicalism in Amer- 
ica before the war wasted most of its strength in 
internecine fights. Now, with its formerly disagreeing 
members better acquainted, and through the help of 
such agencies as the Rand School and the National 
Conference of Radical, Labor and Socialist Move- 
ments, it is working in close harmony. 

The "interlocking directorate" which operates 
through these agencies includes all the Radical groups. 
Out of the 86 radicals discussed above, and consider- 
ing not only direct affiliations, but cases where public 
support for and sympathy with a movement has been 
shown by Reds who are connected by membership with 
some other organization, there were present in the 
National Conference 16, of whom two were Syndical- 
ists, 8 Socialists, 3 Bolshevists and 2 Anarchists. Con- 



196 LABOR AND REVOLT 

nected with the Rand School, as members, lecturers or 
contributors, there were 20 of the group of 86, 6 Syn- 
dicalists, 13 Socialists, 7 "direct actionists," 6 Bol- 
shevists and one Anarchist. 

Through this co-ordination we find the Radicals 
supporting one another in every activity, as was just 
indicated in the fact that some of the Radicals must 
now be listed as connected with two different bodies of 
thought. The Socialists are supporting and defending 
Bolshevists, and Bolshevists Anarchists, and Anar- 
chists Syndicalists, and all the I. W. W. 

DISLOYALTY UNITES ALL ''iSMS*' 

And it will be recalled the Hstings of Radicals just 
given all go back to disloyal activities. There is a real 
and provable communion between disloyalty and So- 
cialism, between disloyalty and ''liberalism"; between 
disloyalty and Anarchism, Bolshevism, Revolution of 
every kind, and there are relations from these not only 
to disloyalty — anti-Americanism — but from one to an- 
other in every possible permutation and combinations. 

Another infiltration of the Reds has been into the 
bureaus of the United States government. Few of 
those who have succeeded in getting these places are 
openly extremists — their menace lies in the fact of the 
co-ordination and mutual support given one another 
by the various classes of Reds, and of the control and 
infiuence which the gigantic revolutionary conspiracy 
exercises over even the unknowing among the Rad- 



THE SEEPING POISON 197 

icals. How great this penetration has been has not yet 
been revealed: it has been charged that there are or 
have been Radicals in the Federal Trade Commission, 
the War Labor Board, the Bureau of Information 
(Creel Bureau) and even in the Military Intelligence. 

It is clear, then, that the forces of Revolution are 
using all possible means, and penetrating into all pos- 
sible organizations that may help them in any way — 
they are drawing into a gigantic confederation all the 
agencies of unrest or discontent, and are reaching out 
to subvert many organizations which are centers 
neither of unrest nor of discontent. There is not to- 
day, so far as can be learned, a single conspiracy 
against America which is not in touch with all other 
conspiracies, or in which the Reds do not have a voice 
and an influence. 

It is no guerrilla warfare that is being waged against 
America, against American labor. It is part of an- 
other World War. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 

Suppression of "free speech for revolution" — How it aided Reds 
— Allies it brought them — Results more apparent than real — 
Dangers of suppression and its small effect — Red propa- 
ganda by word of mouth — The army of lecturers — Revolu- 
tionary training schools — The great periodical press — The 
pamphlet press — The use of foreign languages — The "liberal" 
press — The mutual support of all Red propagandists — The 
cost of the propaganda — The men behind it — Propaganda 
made in Petrograd. 

The limits put on free speech for the Revolution 
and for pro-German propaganda have furnished the 
Reds with one of their best and most effective weapons 
ever since the Espionage Act was passed. They have 
been able to appeal with high success to the traditional 
American spirit of complete tolerance, as well as to 
the Constitution, and they have made thousands be- 
lieve that the law was a sign of fear on the part of the 
government, as well as of tyranny. 

Anyone who visited Hyde Park in London, of an 
evening before the war or since will remember the 
blazing sign of British complacency and assurance 
which it offered: from one to a dozen wild Reds de- 
claiming against everything British, demanding violent 
revolution, at times even advising the assassination 

198 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 199 

of the King, while two stoHd "bobbies" protected each 
Red from any danger that the crowd might feel like 
showing. Nor were the bobbies' jobs always a sine- 
cure ! British freedom to advocate murder was main- 
tained at some cost! 

Madison Square, with its soap-box Radicals, never 
saw anything quite so impressive, perhaps because the 
New York police left the Reds to defend themselves 
if need arose and there were occasional instances of 
violent popular criticism. The Reds are far from 
being the only people who, in these days of multiplied 
censorships, have regretted the passing of this com- 
placency and waited hopefully for its return. 

''official'' liars aid the reds 

Nor has the Red propaganda been the only one 
which has aided the Red cause. The "official" news 
that has gone along with the official censorships, and 
the misleading propaganda that has been put out by 
our own government as well as those of foreign coun- 
tries, have shaken the none too robust faith that the 
general public had in government and official state- 
ments, and left the way open for the Reds to spread 
their doctrines without effective opposition. 

For many of us the war has destroyed the strength 
of any propaganda as a weapon, because we have 
learned to distrust almost all that we read, or at least 
to discriminate sharply as to news sources. America 
swallowed the German propaganda which was spread 



200 LABOR AND REVOLT 

here for years, because it was secret and we were un- 
suspecting. That will hardly happen again until after 
a time of complete immunity, when the lesson will have 
been forgotten. But with the class of people to whom 
the Reds most wish to appeal the lesson has been only 
half learned — they distrust the government, and the 
daily press, but still swallow the Red poison. 

The task of the Red in America is not yet tO' direct 
and organize discontent — there is too little of it to 
meet his need^ — but to create it. For this purpose 
propaganda is, of course, the only weapon, as con- 
spiracy and organization will be in a later stage of the 
attempt. The Red and the Hun made their propa- 
ganda so effective, and its assistance to the national 
enemy was so evident, that it is little wonder that a 
government harassed with the sudden details of a 
great war should have preferred the effort at suppres- 
sion to the much more laborious attempt to meet that 
propaganda on its own ground. 

But the suppression, in spite of the drastic wording 
of the law, has been more apparent than real so far as 
the Revolution is concerned. The Reds have modified 
their language somewhat, and a very few of them have 
been sent to jail, but as one comes to realize how vast 
and powerful their campaign has been, doubts rise as 
to whether any real hindrance has been put in their 
way. 

On the other hand, the aid that suppression has 
been to them, and the dangers that it brings, have been 
clear. The * 'martyrdom" of men like the humane and 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 201 

much-loved Debs, and of religious idealists like Roger 
N. Baldwin, have been themes that have helped stir a 
thousand audiences to the indignation which is the 
Revolutionists' best ally. Thousands of other people, 
moreover, and people not otherwise in sympathy with 
the Reds, have resented the government's invasion of 
rights that they consider sacred. These have brought 
to the support of the Red agitators a force of public 
opinion to which they were by no means entitled. 

THE SMALL VALUE OF SUPPRESSING SYMPTOMS 

As a result of the war experience it would seem 
clear that suppression will have no real effect in stay- 
ing Revolution, now or in the future, for more than a 
little time. The Red propaganda must be based on 
injuries and grievances, either real or fancied, and it 
can be met only by removing the real grievances, and 
by counter-propaganda and education to show the 
truth about those that are fancied. The suppression 
of such symptoms as the red flag, for example, is not 
even a step toward a solution. And as has been shown 
in the case of The Communist suppression merely 
forces secret publication, and gives the propaganda a 
much wider interest and appeal than it would have 
otherwise. The Communist, now under official ban, 
has a far larger circulation than ever before. 

To meet the Red propaganda by education and 
the removal of the real grievances is no light 
undertaking. That propaganda has grown to propor- 



202 LABOR AND REVOLT 

tions which few in the country realize even yet, and 
it is working in many ways, and with much cleverness 
as well as persistence. Since it is at present the chief 
form of revolutionary activity, it is worth examining 
at some length. 

Most insidious, and least easily measured, is the 
propaganda that is carried on by word of mouth. It is 
impossible to estimate the extent of this. One recent 
guess was that the I. W. W. alone had 15,000 mis- 
sionaries, who were on its payroll, in the territory 
west of the Mississippi. Another was that in the 
country, as a whole, there are 50,000 alien agitators, 
mostly German and Russian. One thing is certain — 
there has hardly been a labor disturbance of any kind, 
since the signing of the armistice, at which Radical 
agitators have not been in evidence. 



THE RED POISON" GAS ATTACK 

The open propaganda at least can be gauged, and it 
is staggering in its extent. 

First come the lecturers. Setting aside the street- 
corner orators, there are about 100 radical meetings 
held daily in and around New York City alone ; some- 
thing like 1,400 in this country, as a whole. New 
York averages about fifty of the soap-box speakers 
beside. It is safe to say that there are not less than 
2,000 radical speeches a day made in this country ! If 
the audiences average only 25 each, that means that 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 203 

there are 5,000,000 Americans reached daily by the 
Red propaganda. 

Backing up and supporting this lecture propaganda, 
the Reds maintain schools, which are training hun- 
dreds for the platform. The Rand School, in New 
York, for example, in the summer of 19 19, headed its 
list of summer school courses with "Method of Using 
Social Facts" and "Control of Public Opinion." It 
even maintains a correspondence school, and has prom- 
ised to open a "high school" for youngsters. Its 
teachers include many of the most prominent radicals 
in the country. It has received with approval Gold- 
man, Berkman, and people of that stripe. 

A minor extension of this idea are the Sunday 
schools which are being conducted by the Reds in more 
than fifty cities. In these they begin inculcating the 
principles of Revolution into children as young as five 
and six years old. 

THE RED PRESS ALL THINGS TO THE MEN 

Most vigorous of all the Red propaganaa agencies, 
however, is its press. In extent, in power, in variety, 
and in activity, it is a thing to draw admiration and 
wonder. Its adaptations are infinite — there is no 
shading of revolutionary opinion that is not reached, 
no class of reader that is not courted. It is all things 
to all men — but it always gently or violently insinuates 
the idea of Revolution. 

It is impossible to state definitely the number of 



204 LABOR AND REVOLT 

papers under Red control because of these shadings of 
position taken. Excluding all that are not frankly- 
revolutionary in tone, there were 328 printed in this 
country in 19 19 and 144 printed abroad and regularly- 
sent here for distribution. If the varying shades of 
semi-Red sentiment be included, the number is nearly 
2,000. Among the publications are dailies, weeklies 
and monthlies; there are some that compete with our 
best magazines in typography and finish, and some 
that out-yellow the yellowest of the dailies and appeal 
to the very lowest of those who can read at all. It is 
notable of them all, however, that they show evidences 
of brains and training in the writing and editing ; there 
are fewer misspelled words, fewer grammatical errors, 
fewer blunders of any kind, than in the average city 
daily. The crudest of them are far from being the 
product of ignorance. 

The circulation of these publications runs, for the 
open Reds alone, to about three million. In New York 
City it is above 800,000. Of course, there is some 
over-lapping in this, as dailies and weeklies go to the 
same subscriber in many cases, but it is probable, on 
the usual circulation estimate of five readers to every 
paper printed, that something like 8,000,000 persons 
in America are reached by the Red press. If the semi- 
Reds be included, the number would be doubled, at 
least. 

Fully half of the Red press is in foreign languages, 
though most of the "oflficiar* organs of the various 
Radical organizations are, of course, printed in Eng- 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 205 

lish. Probably the largest section of the foreign-lan- 
guage Revolutionary press is Yiddish, with German 
next, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Spanish, French, 
Swedish, Finnish and a dozen other languages in- 
cluded. The I. W. W. alone prints papers in nine 
languages. 

Along with this periodical press goes a tremendous 
volume of pamphlet propaganda. It is impossible to 
estimate it with any accuracy, though more than 2,000 
different pamphlets have been listed. The circulation 
of some of these has run into the millions — that of 
Lenin's "Letter to American Workingmen" is be- 
lieved to have passed the five million mark. These are 
all put out at prices which will hardly pay the cost of 
printing, when there is any price asked, and they are 
a regular part of the equipment of the Red speakers, 
and even more of the "borers." 



THE PINK-SPOTTED '^LIBERAL'^ PRESS 

There is one rather large class of publications, and 
certainly an important one, that can scarcely be classed 
as Red, and that yet must not be passed over in con- 
sidering the revolutionary propaganda, because of the 
"aid and comfort" it is giving to the Reds. This is the 
class of "Liberal" magazines, running all the way 
from The Liberator, which is almost pure Red, to 
high-class "intellectual" weeklies, which would indig- 
nantly deny that they are in any way rosy with 
Revolution. 



2o6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Yet the Red press is constantly copying from them, 
and reprinting articles they have published. An arti- 
cle in The New York Call for instance begins, *We 
owe so much to The New Republic these days," and 
in a single issue of The Rebel Worker — Organ of 
Revolutionary Unionism, are quotations at length 
from The Nation and The Dial, next to a mass 
of I. W. W. propaganda. Certainly some of these 
publications show a tolerance of the Revolutionary 
movements that verges on sympathy. 

A most striking feature of this published propa- 
ganda, in the present stage of its development, is the 
marked mutual sympathy and support that it shows, 
and the common defense that it brings to all Revolu- 
tionary or Labor lawlessness and rioting, to all revo- 
lutionary activity of any kind, to disloyalty, defiance 
of the Espionage Act, conscientious objectors, and 
especially to Bolshevism. Its united opposition to any 
measure to curb Revolution, such as the deportation 
of alien agitators or bomb plotters, is equally marked. 
The principle on which the Red writers work is that 
of Roger Baldwin: "I believe that all parts of the 
radical movement serve the common end." 



STRONG ANTIPATHY TO JAILS 

Another notable characteristic of the Red papers is 
their almost unanimous antipathy to jails. Those in- 
stitutions seem to have been agreed upon as a symbol 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 207 

of the "tyranny" of modern society. The Anarchist 
Soviet Bulletin has this advice to the workers: 

First make known that as soon as you are organized 
strongly enough into your Soviets, you are going to open 
the door of every jail in the country. You will free NOT 
ONLY the political victims of capitalism, whose vain 
striving for betterment of conditions is their only crime ! 
For remember, the real criminals are not in the jail houses! 

"An International Holy Day, The Drama of Chi- 
cago, May I, 1886'' (the date of the beginning of the 
movement that culminated in the Haymarket bomb 
outrages) put out by the I. W. W. says: 

Revolt against capital and power; burn the codes of law, 
destroy the jails, barracks, take all riches." 

The New Solidarity, an I. W. W. organ, and 
many other Red papers as well, show this antipathy in 
a cartoon which shows a mighty fist, made up of a 
host of workers, smashing a building marked "jails." 
The workers carry banners some of which read: 
"Open the jails," "release all class-war prisoners," 
"solidarity is our strength," "withdraw from Russia," 
and "down with autocracy." 

There is no need of dwelling on the conditions that 
such a general jail delivery would cause. 

MILLIONS SPENT IN CULTIVATION OF DISORDER 

Such are the methods, the extent and some of the 
characteristics of the Red propaganda. Behind it is 



2o8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

a financial support that appears to be unlimited. The 
I. W. W. recently made public a statement that the 
cost in March, 19 19, of eight of its publications was 
$16,099.67, and the statement was intended to com- 
bat charges that it was spending large sums. If this 
can be taken as a fair average of the 471 Red publica- 
tions circulated in America, the total for the month 
would be around $950,000 and for a year $11,400,000 
— no small amount. It is, secret service men believe, 
far below the actual total. 

Whatever that total may be, there must be added 
the cost of the millions of pamphlets, of the paid agita- 
tors and their expenses, of the lecturers, and of the 
big bureaus which the revolutionaries maintain in all 
important cities. Each of these figures will be in the 
millions. The Revolutionary budget is a heavy one. 

THE ITCH FOR HEROICS 

Among the writers who maintain this propaganda 
are some of the cleverest men and women in America, 
as their work abundantly testifies. So clever are they 
that their very ability casts some doubt on the actual 
menace that lies behind the wide circulation of their 
writings — people of all kinds like to read clever things 
whether they agree with them or not. Most of these 
writers have been drawn from the "white collar" 
classes into the workingman's movement, and have 
never held any other tool than a pen. 

Many of them are doubtless sincere. 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 209 

But to some the Revolution is an adventure; they 
like to think that they are running big risks, which they 
are not. If any of the leading radical editors have 
been put in jail, or suffered any other serious personal 
inconvenience, it has been rather carefully concealed. 
Several have been tried, but the courts have found 
that they had been careful to observe the "safety first" 
motto. 

Yet they resent any suggestion that they are not 
heroes. One of them, in particular, seemed rather 
pleased at an article in a "capitalistic paper" which ac- 
cused him of disloyalty, revolutionary agitation, and 
various other sins. Yet he was quite bitter over a 
hint that he was in no personal danger. There are, 
however, a full dozen eager prosecuting attorneys who 
can give witness that every word he has written has 
been inside the law — just inside sometimes, but always 
safe. 

PROFIT IN BEING RED 

To some propagandists, too, there is immediate 
profit in Revolution. There is Scott Nearing, whose 
dismissal from the University of Pennsylvania for 
extreme Radicalism caused such a furor a few years 
ago. He was an instructor there, not a professor, and 
as academic salaries go, was probably drawing about 
$2,000 a year, perhaps $2,500. Yet evidence found 
in the Rand School, when it was raided by New York 
of^cials, showed that during a single month he re- 



210 LABOR AND REVOLT 

received through it approximately $6io, which would 
come to $7,320 a year, a balance over teaching of from 
$4,820 to $5,320. There is profit in being Red! 

One of the powers behind the propaganda has been 
definitely exposed by the Lusk Committee in New 
York. It is Petrograd. "Ambassador" Martens has 
admitted that his bureau was the cover for a large 
and important part of the agitation, and that it is 
aimed directly at immediate revolution. What funds 
he had have not been shown, but members of his 
staff have declared that the Soviet Republic was pre- 
pared to deposit $200,000,000 to guarantee its com- 
mercial transactions. The Soviet propaganda appro- 
priation for 19 1 8 was 300,000,000 roubles ($150,- 
000,000). With this fund available, and the foment- 
ing of Revolution throughout the world an acknowl- 
edged part of the Soviet's ambition, it seems obvious 
that the Martens bureau is well backed. 

Much of the literature it circulates was actually 
printed in Russia, in English and aimed at American 
readers. Two ship loads of such literature were seized 
in transit, but tons of it has reached this country. 

It will be remembered, also, that in an earlier chap- 
ter, it was shown that large parts of the millions avail- 
able in America for German government use are get- 
ting into Revolutionary hands. 

WANTED PRINTED ANTIDOTES FOR RED POISON 

The Hun, the Bolshevist, cleverness, profit, sincere 
convictions too, combine to make the Red propaganda 



THE VOICE OF THE SEDUCER 211 

a mighty weapon. It can be met only by the correc- 
tion of evils and by a counter-propaganda of equal 
power and extent. There has been much talk about 
the counter-propaganda and about education to coun- 
teract the Red poison, but all that has been done so far 
can be told in very few words. 

It is, compared to the thing it has to fight, practi- 
cally nothing. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 

The Red attack on the "capitalistic press" — Grounds for this, 
and reasons for those grounds — Some Red lies about his- 
tory, about economic condition, about Labor's sufferings, 
about American tyranny, about the war, about current 
events — The flood of lies about the success of the Russian 
Soviets — Suppression of all news unfavorable to the Red 
propaganda— A Socialist tells the truth about the Red press. 

"The newspapers are mankind's greatest curse, freedom's 
greatest menace; the greatest obstacle in the path of human 
happiness, love and universal brotherhood." (From The 
Voice in the Wilderness.) 

"Never in the world's history has there been witnessed 
such a gigantic, organized, systematic, malign campaign of 
falsehood as that to which the world has been treated dur- 
ing the last eighteen months, with particular reference to 
the Soviet Republic of Russia." (Algernon Lee, in a speech 
at Madison Square Garden, June 17, 1919.) 

"The Chicago kept press ... just as susceptible to the 
influence of big business, and therefore just as unfair." 
(From the Fargo, N. D., Citizen* s Union.) 

These three quotations, taken at random from a 
hundred, which might as easily have been ten thou- 
sand, are typical of the attitude of the Reds both in 
their press and on the platform, to the "capitalistic 
press." Their propaganda is full of such attacks, 

212 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 213 

and their virulence and vigor seem at first a little sur- 
prising. 

The object of them, however, becomes evident on 
consideration. For if the readers and hearers of the 
Red propaganda believed at all in the ordinary news- 
papers, if they even believed their statements worth 
considering, the Red propaganda would be quite use- 
less. The statements of fact, far more than the argu- 
ments that appear in the daily press, are deadly to the 
Revolutionary campaign. The Reds in their attack 
also have the same motive as that which lies behind 
the shyster lawyer's trick of abusing his opponent's 
attorney — a poor case. 

There are grounds enough for the attack on the 
press. Every issue of every paper is full of misstate- 
ments, as no one realizes more keenly than one who 
has spent years of rather strenuous effort trying to 
insure the greatest possible accuracy in news reports. 

TROUBLES OF THE NEWSPAPERS 

It is impossible, under the conditions of publishing 
a newspaper, that it should be otherwise. The papers 
have only a few hours in which to gather their reports, 
they often have within that time to compile some 
kind of an account of events which it may later take 
the courts weeks or months to determine accurately, 
they have to trust for much of their information to 
people outside the profession, untrained observers at 
the best, sometimes prejudiced or partial, and occa- 



214 LABOR AND REVOLT 

sionally personally interested or actually liars. The 
information must further be handled by reporters 
who, however honest, have the usual human 
weaknesses. 

Further, the newspapers, especially in recent years, 
have had to contend with a flood of propaganda, all 
interested, most of it partial, and much of it untruth- 
ful. Every newspaper is constantly beset with highly 
paid and exceedingly clever agents of various interests 
who both openly and secretly are trying to worm their 
partisan and partial accounts into print. Sometimes 
they succeed. 

Finally the daily press has to bear the burden of a 
great deal of careless reading on the part of its sub- 
scribers. The qualifications, the explanations, the 
"alibis" which the reporters and the editors are con- 
stantly inserting into the stories are overlooked, and 
the paper is blamed for lies told by public or private 
men, and distinctly stated in the papers to have come 
from such sources. 

In spite of all the handicaps under which the papers 
work, it is seldom indeed that a flat statement is made 
which is in error. The editors are exceedingly cau- 
tious, rather too much than too little cautious, before 
publishing on the authority of the paper itself, with- 
out specification as to the origin of the statement or 
the source of the information, any alleged fact what- 
soever. The misstatements and errors are there, but 
in nine cases out of ten, they are statements made by 
some other agency than the paper itself and only 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 215 

quoted by the paper. Every precaution would be 
taken by the papers in defense against libel and on 
behalf of reputation, even if there were no honesty 
whatever among newspapermen. 

There was a time when the best of our papers dis- 
torted and twisted much of the news to bring it into 
line with policies which they were supporting. That 
time has passed, though there are certain papers 
against which the charge will still lie. They are neither 
the most important nor, as it happens, the most "capi- 
talistic.'' Allowances being made for personal preju- 
dices in the reporters and editors, for ignorance and 
lack of understanding, my own experience in working 
both on and against some of the biggest papers in 
America has convinced me that there is not one news- 
paperman in a hundred who is not honest, and not 
one story in a hundred that is not written and pub- 
lished on the basis of honesty, if not of intelligence. 

WHAT THE PAPERS ^'dARE NOT PRINT"' 

One o£ the constant charges of the Reds is that 
the "capitalistic papers" dare not print such and such 
Revolutionary news, yet I have never known of a case 
where that was true. One evening in a group which 
included several extreme Radicals from a meeting at 
which Red speakers had held forth, startling news was 
brought out — Bolshevist rioting in northern Italy. 
Several of the Radicals declared, "Your capitalistic 
press would never dare to print that/' 



2i6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

When I said that this piece of news already had 
been printed and that it was two days old, they would 
not believe me. It was only by getting copies of the 
papers that I proved my point. Not a single New 
York paper, morning or evening, had failed to pub- 
lish the story. Incidentally, it afterward turned out 
to have been grossly exaggerated. I have yet to find 
in any of the Red publications a single authentic state- 
ment, or one at all well supported, that has been sup- 
pressed by the "capitalistic" papers. Moreover, few 
Radicals read the "capitalistic" papers to verify their 
own statements concerning them. 

This explanation has been perhaps unduly long be- 
cause of a very general failure to understand the rea- 
sons for the errors and misstatements, which in spite 
of the utmost care, probably always will appear in the 
daily papers. 



THE REDS SHODDY STOCK IN TRADE 

These errors, at any rate, are a great asset to the 
Reds. 

Let us look, now, at some of the reasons why they 
find it so necessary to abuse their opponents' attorneys. 
The reasons appear when we consider the statements 
made in the Red propaganda. Such an examination 
can take notice of only a few, so the examples have 
been selected to cover as wide a field as possible. Since 
the whole Revolutionary theory is based on the "eco- 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 217 

nomic interpretation of history" historical statements 
may come first. 

The Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker is a "moderate" 
Radical. In his lecture on "The American Idea'* we 
find this: 

The Thirteen Colonies were settled by wretched white 
slaves; by kidnapped and indentured paupers; by convicts, 
and by all the human misery that could be swept together 
ottt of the slums of England and dumped on these shores. . . . 

Shades of Miles Standish and John Winthrop, of 
Peter Stuyvesant and William Penn, of Captain John 
Smith, George Somers, James Moore and John Sevier ! 

A little later Mr. Tucker says: 

No life of Lincoln is complete or deals with him in his 
trwe significance to the world which does not show him 
as, in very fact, one of the Founders of International 
Socialism ! 

He establishes this remarkable statement by a series 
of entirely accurate quotations from Lincoln's speeches 
and writings. What he does not quote are Lincoln's 
statements on behalf of Capital such as "Capital has 
its rights which are as worthy of protection as any 
other rights. Nor is it denied that there is and probably 
always will be a relation between Capital and Labor 
producing mutual benefit" — a statement hardly com- 
patible with Socialism! 

In another lecture Mr. Tucker, by a system of in- 
genious reasoning, reaches the conclusion that the 



2i8' LABOR AND REVOLT 

Christians were persecuted by the Jews because "Paul 
was preaching a religion which would have disrupted 
the great International Credit System. ... It would 
unsettle business. . . ." He ignores the small facts 
that the persecutions started long before Paul was 
converted, and that whatever Paul's financial schemes 
may have been, they could hardly have led to the cruci- 
fixion of Christ! 



RED statements; the facts 

Turning to the statements made about modern con- 
ditions, there are certain asseverations that are in the 
nature of stock arguments with the Reds. For in- 
stance there are these: 

In the United States 30,000,000 people work for other 
people, to whom they yield more than two-thirds of their 
product for the privilege of working. ('Industrial Social- 
ism," by Haywood and Bohn.) 

The worker ... is robbed of the major part of his 
product. ("Reform or Revolution," by Karl Dannenberg.) 

Government statistics show that the average man, 
woman and child makes from $2000 to $3000 worth of 
things a year; that is they produce from $2000 to $3000 
worth of wealth every year. Their wages average about 
$500 a year. ("Why Catholic Workers Should Be Social- 
ists," by Mary E. Marcy.) 

The facts, as shown by Professor King, in "The 
Wealth and Income of the People of the United 
States," are: In 19 10 the value of the product of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 219 

persons engaged in manufacturing averaged $849, in 
transportation $1,661, in mining $1,191, in agriculture 
$392. Thus the highest comes far short of the low- 
est figure given above. The average wage was $509, 
which is stated correctly. Of this product, in 19 10, 
the wage earner got 46.9%, far more than the one- 
third given above. This share has run as high as 
53-5%, or more than half. 
Then there are statements like these: 

Measured by the food, clothing and shelter the worker 
can buy with his wages, which is the only true way to meas- 
ure an income, wages have gone down at least fifty per cent 
in this time (the last fifteen years). ("Industrial Social- 
ism.") 

There are several millions of men and women in the 
United States who are out of work to-day. ("Why Catholic 
Workers Should Be Socialists.") 

Again the facts: In 1890 the average purchasing 
power of the average wage was $350 (using the 1900 
prices as a standard), in 1900 it was $410 and in 19 10 
it was $401, far from a 50% decrease anywhere. The 
highest unemployment of wage earners in this country 
at all recently was in 1893, when it ran to 15%. There 
were then about 20,000,000 w^age earners, so that the 
total out of work was about 3,000,000. That number 
has never been reached since. Since 19 14 the high- 
est unemployment was during demobilization in 19 19, 
and ran to about 5% of 27,000,000 workers, or 1,350,- 
000. Possibly that is "several million." Of course 



220 LABOR AND REVOLT 

there were millions who did not work because they 
did not wish nor need to. 

When James P. Holland, president of the New York 
State Federation of Labor, was examined in a Lusk 
Committee hearing in New York City, he was asked 
whether there was any actual "starving proletariat" 
among the New York workers. He said there was 
not. He added that it was the custom for the Reds 
to say that there was. 

"They would preach that if there was a house full 
of food alongside of them," he added. 

It is probably needless to comment on other state- 
ments. Here are a few more that may stand on their 
own merits, as samples of the stock-in-trade of Red 
propaganda: 

Morgan and his associates on Wall Street use the gov- 
ernment as a tool to serve their ends. ... Of course every- 
body knows that rich offenders purchase this "justice" while 
poor offenders get it presented to them. ("Industrial Social- 
ism.") 

Why did the American plutocracy desire to crush Ger- 
many? Was it to destroy despotism there? The idea is 
preposterous. . . . They want to see German industry 
crushed, however, and since the Kaiser and his group repre- 
sented German business in its most highly developed form, 
the Kaiser was the object of their wrath. ("The Great Mad- 
ness," by Scott Nearing.) 

During the war everything un-American (which means 
not profitable to Wall Street) was stigmatized as German 
propaganda. ("Socialism Imperiled," by W. A. Domingo.) 

This bitter, organized persecution (of anti-war Radicals) 
was not due to anti-war activities of the I. W. W. It was 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 221 

due to the favorable opportunity offered to business inter- 
ests by the war to crush their greatest foes at home. ("Per- 
secution of the Radical Labor Movement," by the National 
Civil Liberties Bureau.) 

The prosecutions and persecutions of the I. W. W. — the 
open, bare-faced shameless crushing of a great labor organ- 
ization by the capitalistic class. . . . (John Reed in "The 
Communist.") 

Self-determination of all nationalities was written into the 
principles of diplomacy by the Russian Revolution. (Irwin 
St. John Tucker.) 

However, when actually within "reach of their much 
coveted prize, when within arm's length of Paris, the Ger- 
man offensive halted, and then, after some dickering and 
dallying, the German emissaries concluded the aforemen- 
tioned armistice and the undefeated German battalions 
turned right-about- face, and, leaving as a magnanimous 
victor, all the fruits of their victory behind — marched home. 
("The Revolution in Germany," by Karl Dannenberg.) He 
wanted to prove that it was the Bolshevists in Germany 
who stopped the war. 

The Germans and Austrians were never guilty of 
pogroms, of uncalled-for massacres of defenseless men, 
women and children. (Dr. William J. Robinson's "Credo.") 

The whole Red propaganda is literally salted with 
statements like these. Each might be multiplied a 
thousand times. 



RED news; and the facts 

Turning now to contemporary events: A Red 
parade was broken up by the New York police on 
October 7, 19 19, because the paraders refused to get 



222 LABOR AND REVOLT 

a license. Several people were clubbed, and one 
woman, though uninjured, became hysterical. No one 
was hurt badly enough to require an ambulance. Yet 
in dozens of Red papers throughout the country were 
statements that several people had been killed, one 
putting the number at sixteen, and another printing 
a pitiful story of a child dying in a tenement after 
having been trampled by a policeman's — a, "cossack's** 
— Ahorse! 

Of a different nature was the "atrocity" arranged 
during the steel strike, in which the body of a woman 
who was shot during a riot was mutilated to "prove" 
that she had been shot in the back, and could not, there- 
fore, have been attacking the police. 

Different in another way was the story, carried in 
practically all the Red papers in the summer of 19 19, 
of a British plot to make America a British colony. 
This was based on a document "found" near 500 Madi- 
son Avenue, New York, the address of Sir William 
Wiseman, head of the British secret service in Amer- 
ica. It is apparently a satire, exceedingly clever in 
spots. It "revealed" schemes to change the school 
books to favor the British, change "The Star Spangled 
Banner" for "America," so as to teach us the tune of 
"God Save the King," to install Britons in American 
pulpits, control Labor through Mr. Gompers, and 
finally to form the League of Nations as a means of 
bringing America under British rule. The cost of 
"converting an American into a colonist" was put at 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 223 

fifty-three cents. Yet this amusing document was 
treated as a serious revelation of secret history ! 

The Winnipeg strike reports are a typical sample of 
this kind of *'news/' Setting aside lurid descriptions 
of brutalities by the police against the strikers — the 
police were in full sympathy with the strikers, and 
there were no such brutalities — here is a flat statement 
taken from The Industrial Banner: 

The great bulk of the great war veterans in the strike- 
bound city are solidly behind the unions. This was demon- 
strated at a summoned meeting of the Great War Veterans* 
Association on the evening before the great parade of the 
labor veterans, who turned out in thousands and marched 
in the strike procession. This meeting was the largest ever 
held in the history of the association, and it is claimed that 
6,000 of its members were in the parade. The procession 
worked up by the big interests* Citizens' Committee was 
only about half as long as the one marshaled by the strike 
committee, and proved such a fizzle that Mayor Gray for- 
bade any more parades to be held. 

I was in Winnipeg. The veterans' meeting was a 
big one, it was addressed by Mayor Gray, and more 
than 2,000 veterans volunteered for special guard duty 
against the strikers! There were about 1,200 men in 
the strikers' parade; about 2,500 in that of the "loyal" 
veterans next day. The order against more parades 
followed attempts by the strikers to break up the 
"loyal" veterans' ranks. Finally, when the police were 
discharged, as in Boston later, for refusal to put 
loyalty to the government ahead of loyalty to the 



224 LABOR AND REVOLT 

unions, it was veterans who took their places. The 
fire companies, the street cars, the auto transport sys- 
tem, all run to help break the strike, were all manned 
by veterans. If there was any one thing clearly dem- 
onstrated in Winnipeg it was that the majority of 
veterans were against the strike. It would not have 
been beaten without their help. 

RETOUCHING THE SOVIET'S RECORD 

Most unbounded have been the statements about 
Russia, which, if the Red propaganda were to suc- 
ceed, must be painted as a land of great happiness 
under the Soviet rule; a realization of all the hopes 
of the under-dog. Here are a few of these state- 
ments, all taken from a single pamphlet, Albert Rhys 
Williams' 'The Bolsheviks and the Soviets." 

''This has made the peasants very happy and glad 
to support the Soviets/' Mme. Breshkovsky and a 
dozen others have testified that the peasants are held 
under Soviet control by force. 

*' After a time many factories turned out more prod- 
ucts than before" One such factory has been re- 
ported. It was a "government factory," full of graft 
before the Revolution. In others, when production in- 
creased, it was after Soviet management had been 
abandoned, and the "single will" described by Lenin 
had been put in control. 

"/f (the Soviet) has saved hundreds of thousands 
of American lives, some say 500,000; others say more. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 225 

Because if did all it could to bring about the great 
revolution in Germany and Austria zvhich, in turn, 
suddenly brought about the end of the Great War," 
No comment is necessary on this statement. 

"Are Socialists the only ones who believe in the 
Soviets? No,'' and he cites among others Raymond 
Robins. Colonel Robins has said of the Soviet: "I 
know the beast ... the actual scope and power and 
menace there is in it. I believe that its decree of 
workmens' control will destroy production in Russia. 
I believe that its class theory makes in the end for the 
class terror and the destruction of life and property 
without regard to right. I believe that its materialistic 
programme challenges the Christian conscience of the 
world." 

''No one says that there were more than 40,000 
killed in the first year of the revolution, and many of 
these were Bolsheviks who were killed in defending 
the Soviet against unlawful attacks." The Soviet has 
officially "estimated'' that there were 78,000 of its 
citizen-enemies killed in the first year. This does not 
include those who starved to death. 

''Has not the Soviet government made general chaos 
and disorder in Russia? On the contrary, it has saved 
the country from those evils" Russia was hungry 
when the Bolshevist rule began, now it starves. Bread 
in Moscow (November, 19 19) was selling at $37.50 a 
loaf. Its cities are depopulated, its workers are 
vagrants; the farms are unproductive, and famine 
stalks in the land. 



226 LABOR AND REVOLT 

*'The Bolshevik leaders are the most honest and 
most sacrificing men in the world." Lenin is the chief. 
His attitude has already been shown. 

''The average Russian workman far better under- 
stands all economic and social questions than does the 
average so-called educated American/' Is any com- 
ment necessary? 

WHAT THE REDS DARE NOT PRINT 

Such are the willful falsehoods — ^not to use the 
shorter and uglier word — in the Red propaganda. 
Equally important are the omissions from all the Red 
papers and speeches and pamphlets of the true facts 
about Russia. One looks in vain for statements of 
these things: 

That in Russia the factory workers have five times 
the voting power of the farmers. Revolution here is 
trying to get the support of the farmers! 

That in Russia a strike is a crime. 

That at Moscow the Russian language has almost 
disappeared, and that Yiddish, Magyar, German, 
Chinese and Lettish are more frequently used. 

That the backbone of the Red Army is made up of 
Letts and Chinese. 

John Ward, a British labor leader, recently returned 
from Russia and declared that "when revolution starts 
you go back to the jungle, whether you want to or 
not." He told of wells filled with dead, and said that 
the British Radical papers which called criticism of 



THE CAMPAIGN OF LIES 227 

Bolshevism an "attack on democracy" did not want 
to study the facts. I have seen no account of his state- 
ments in any Radical paper. 

The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist 
Party (Bolshevists) passed the following decree, which 
also has escaped my attention if any Red paper has 
printed it: 

The whole community of workers will now be subjected 
to a precise calculation of their performance; and expert 
estimates of this production of the workers, both as indi- 
viduals and also in groups, will be made. 

We herewith announce that in the future every worker 
and employe who falls below his established norm, or is 
guilty of any infraction of working discipline, will be placed 
in a lower category, or excluded from the factory altogether. 

"Placed in a lower category" is the Bolshevist 
euphonism for "get less to eat." This kind of prac- 
tical working of Bolshevism is not what the American 
Reds want the American workers to hear about. 

THE VERDICT OF AN HONEST SOCIALIST 

J. G. Phelps-Stokes is a Socialist, an idealist. His 
testimony on the question of the comparative honesty 
of the "capitalistic" and the Red press is explicit, and 
is worth quoting: 

I read with regularity or great frequency besides The 
Times and The Nation, such pro-Bolshevist papers as The 
Call, The Revolutionary Age, The Communist, The Rebel- 



228 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Worker, The New York Socialist, etc. Each paper, of 
comrse, receives through its own channels some news not 
received by the others. But on the whole I find vastly more 
pro-Bolshevist Russian news in the columns of The Times 
than in all the others put together; whereas The Nation 
and all the other pro-Bolshevist papers (except occasionally 
The Call) publish nothing "on the other side" or that could 
in the opinion of the editors discredit in any way the Bol- 
shevist contentions. ... 

I might go on by the hour quoting Bolshevist authorities 
exclusively, citing many scores and even hundreds of similar 
"vital truths" about the Bolshevist regime that have been 
as accessible to the editors of your "liberal" papers as to me, 
but which your "liberal" papers have most shamefully re- 
fused to take note of or to present for the consideration or; 
the attention of their readers. 

This is the basis of the Revolutionary propaganda in 
America — a campaign of lies. This is the reason for 
their attacks on the "capitalistic press," — ^that it ex- 
poses their lies. These lies are a necessary foundation 
for a revolutionary crusade, and Revolution cannot live 
if the truth be told. The Reds' unanimous falsehoods 
and their equally unanimous suppression of the truth 
prove this to be their own conviction. 



CHAPTER XIV 

« 

THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 

The Red challenge to the theory and practice of Democracy — 
What the Reds mean by "rule of the people" — Radical 
Labor far from a majority — Revolution's plan to use force — 
The Red bludgeon: industrial unionism, the sympathetic 
strike, the "burglar" strike, sabotage, the political strike, the 
general strike — The contempt of public suffering — The de- 
mand for Revolution by slaughter. 

We Americans spend so much time and find so 
much pleasure in criticising our government and 
"viewing v^ith alarm" that we have hardly seen any- 
thing unusual in the attacks made upon Democracy 
by the Revolution. The faults of our Democracy 
are continually dinned into our ears by battalions of 
writers and speakers, as well as by one another. So 
in the face of the challenge of the Revolution, it may 
be well to spend a moment in considering some of the 
achievements of this Democracy which the Revolution, 
would destroy. 

Democracy has made America the most prosperous 
country in the world. It has not only permitted the 
building up of the greatest fortimes; it has enabled 
the working class as a whole to live from two to three 
times as comfortably as those of the same occupations 
in any other country. If it has not abolished poverty, 

229 



230 LABOR AND REVOLT 

it has reduced it to far narrower limits than are to be 
found elsewhere. 

Democracy has come nearer, also, to giving equality 
between man and man than has any other form of 
government. It has prevented fixed classes, has left 
the way for advancement so open that it was recently 
shown that of twenty-six railroad officials in this coun- 
try whose salaries are $50,000 a year or above, all 
but two had started at the bottom and on day wages. 
If it does not yet give all its people enough aid in 
grasping opportunity, at least it has closed no door. 

Democracy has made possible rule by the people, 
whenever the people wish to use their power. The 
very complaints about the lack of ability among our 
officials proves this, for those officials represent the 
masses — the average — rather than the educated or 
moneyed classes. The complaints of reformers that 
they are unable to get desirable laws enacted proves 
in another way that the power lies with the people, for 
the great majority of reform failures come because 
the people are not interested. Even the cases where 
corruption has defeated laws that were obviously 
needed are hardly exceptions, for no man who wants 
to stay in politics will vote contrary to a strong public 
sentiment among his constituents. Money cannot buy 
an election where the voters are really aroused. We 
blame Democracy for many things that are in fact due 
to indifference among ourselves. 

So Democracy, with all its faults and failures, has 
given us more of prosperity, more of freedom, and 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 231 

more of political and social equality than any other 
form of government has given to its citizens. 

''by the people'" or by a class? 

Lincoln's definition of Democracy has never been 
equaled: "a government of the people, by the people 
and for the people." It has already been shown how- 
little of Democracy remains when Revolution is in 
power. We have seen in France in 1 793 and in Russia 
in 1919 a part of the proletariat, which is a part of the 
people, rule by force. In Russia Lenin rules that part. 
So there is, through Revolution ''government of the 
people, by a dictator," for what? For a class, at 
best. 

The Revolution, however, makes use of many shib- 
boleths of Democracy. "Rule of the people," "equal- 
ity," "freedom" — these words are constantly on its 
tongue. "Industrial democracy" has been added re- 
cently. The Revolution is trying to persuade America 
that its programme is in line with the ideals we all 
hold : that it will bring merely fulfillment of the things 
toward which we have been working: that it, and it 
only, is genuinely democratic. 

To find the real attitude of the Revolution toward 
Democracy, however, we have only to tear away the 
camouflage of these phrases — for they are camou- 
flage. Marx, in "The Communist Manifesto" gave 
the true key note: 

The bourgeois state is nothing less than a machine for 



232^ LABOR AND REVOLT 

the oppression of one class by another, and that no less in 
a democratic republic than under a monarchy. 

This flat challenge, contradicting all the Reds' pro- 
tests that the Revolution is but the fulfillment of 
Democratic ideals, is maintained by all Reds to-day, 
however they conceal it. But many of them voice it 
openly, trusting to their rhetoric about "equality" and 
"freedom" to blind those who believe in popular rule. 

"Industrial Socialism," for example, sums up the 
whole Red argument : 

Under Socialism the government of the nation will be an 
industrial government, a shop government. . . . The workers 
might as well take a cannon left over from the revolution, 
run it on the street car track and pretend that it was an 
up-to-date electric car, as to try to make over the present 
government of the United States, into a Socialist govern- 
ment. . . . The working class, to be free, must rule Society. 

An article by Lenin, printed in "The Class Strug- 
gle" of New York, apparently with approval, states 
even more brutally the purpose of the Revolution for 
class-war and class-rule, both, of course, utterly anti- 
Democratic. Lenin wrote this in reply to a book by 
Kautsky, a Socialist who argued that the revolution 
should not take place till a majority wished it. He 
says: 

The exploiters have always been only a small minority 
of the population. (Page 14 of Kautsky's book "The 
Dictatorship of the Proletariat") 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 233 

This is an undeniable fact. What conclusion must be 
drawn from this fact? It is possible to arrive at the Marx- 
ian, Socialist conclusion; in that case the relation of the 
exploited to the exploiters must be taken as a basis. It is 
possible to arrive at the liberal-bourgeois-democratic con- 
clusion; then the relation of the majority to the minority- 
must be taken as the basis. 

If the Marxian conclusion is to be drawn, there can be 
but one logical process of reas«fning; the exploiters form the 
state and a democracy in such a state must function abso- 
lutely as the weapon of the rule of this, the exploiting class, 
subjecting the exploited to its rule. Therefore a democratic 
state, as long as there are exploiters who dominate the ma- 
jority composed of the exploited, will become a democracy 
for the exploiters. 

By the same process a state of the exploited must com- 
pletely differ from such a state, it must be a democracy for 
the exploited and express itself in the oppression of the ex- 
ploiters. But the oppression of a class means that this 
class is not equal, that it is put outside "democracy." 

If the liberal-bourgeois conclusion be drawn, then it must 
be said: the majority decides, the minority obeys. The dis- 
obedient will be punished. Then there can be no question of 
the class character of the state generally, or especially of 
the ''pure democratic" state ; it is out of the question, because 
majority is majority. A pound of meat is a pound of meat— 
the well-known standpoint of Shakespeare's Shylock. 



THE ^'SHACKLES'^ OF DEMOCRACY 

The attitude of the Revolution toward our Amer- 
ican Democracy in particular is even more illuminat- 
ing as to the Red hatred of Democratic government. 
*We want to make this a superior drive for the com- 



234 LABOR AND REVOLT 

rades who are shackled with American Democracy," 
says Martin B. Heisler, SociaHst Party organizer, in 
a letter to "Comrade" Nuorteva of the Soviet Bureau. 
* We have in the United States Government, in spite 
of all its democratic forms, the most ruthless, brutal 
government upon the face of the earth,*' said Dennis 
E. Batt to a Madison Square Garden audience. The 
"Luckkataistelu" (Class Struggle) is published in Fin- 
nish by I. W. W.'s. It said to the Finns (May, 1919) : 

Here in this country the capitalistic bureaucracy and their 
tools still have in the name of justice and patriotism an im- 
perialistic power to rule. Here, for instance, the members 
of the working class may be doomed to death without any 
reason whatever. Here thousands of workers can be sent 
from the cities to the desert by any copper or other trust 
if the workingmen of the above mentioned trusts demand 
enough pay to be able to exist somehow. . . . Here, noth- 
ing matters, the meetings of the proletariat may be dis- 
pelled, their halls destroyed, their property burned and 
robbed. Here the members of the proletariat may be treated 
indiscriminately, clubbed, blackjacked, shot, hanged, tarred 
and feathered and transported in secret trains to secret servi- 
tude under the whips of the tyrants. 

Another I. W. W. pamphlet, "An International 
Holy Day, the Drama of Chicago, May i, 1886,'* 
says: 

America is the land of political freedom, and nowhere are 
there so many starving, beaten, downtrodden pDor; nowhere 
is the workingman so dependent on Capital as here. 
America is a free country for the rich; yes, but for the 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 235 

workingman she is like all other countries — a land of slavery 
and oppression. 

Almost every Red publication, almost every Red 
speech, will present statements like these; some more 
violent and some less, but in the same spirit and be- 
lief: Democracy, the rule of all the people, is wrong 
in theory, is tyrannous in practice: Democracy must 
give way to class rule. 

THE REDS^ RAINBOW MAJORITY 

But Americanism has a principle even deeper than 
its belief in the Democratic form of government. This 
is the belief in rule by a majority of all citizens — the 
practical method of showing "the consent of the gov- 
erned." So deep is this belief that it is likely there 
would be no vigorous resistance to Socialism if it 
came by majority vote. The article by Lenin, just 
quoted, shows that he makes no pretense of desiring 
majority rule, but most of the Reds in America at- 
tempt to salve their demand for class-dictatorship by 
declaring that the working-class is actually a majority. 

Setting aside the fact that they are unwilling to have 
this tested at the polls, and the further fact that they 
would exclude from any political influence all but the 
workers (both positions being un-Democratic), their 
claim is worth examining. 

The proposition that the working class constitutes a 
majority is a thing which cannot be settled definitely 
in the present unsatisfactory state of statistical infor- 



236 LABOR AND REVOLT 

mation, especially because the definitfon of "worker*' 
is capable of almost indefinite expansion or contrac- 
tion. But if by "worker" be meant wage earner, as it 
actually does mean in the understanding of the masses 
to whom Revolution is preached, it is more than doubt- 
ful whether the "workers" are in the majority. 

There were, in 19 lo, according to the census, 
38,167,236 persons gainfully employed in the United 
States, constituting 81.3 per cent of all males over 
ten years of age, and 23.4 per cent of all females. Of 
these about 20,000,000 were wage earners. There 
were 18,000,000 on salaries, in business, in profes- 
sions, or in occupations like farming, where they were 
their own employers. This would give the wage 
workers a majority of about 2,000,000 over the other 
classes of earners. 

But there were about 7,500,000 males over ten 
years not gainfully employed — ^boys in schools, men 
living on their incomes, and those beyond the age 
of work. A part of these will fall into the wage- 
earning classes, but since the children of salaried, 
professional and commercial men are much longer in 
completing their education, it is likely that the vast 
majority of this 7,500,000 will not come into the wage 
class, and that therefore the wage workers are 
slightly in the minority. There is a further discount 
from the size of the wage group from the fact that in 
this group, far more than in any other, more than one 
person in a family is likely to work. 

There has been one recent, tiny but perhaps signifi- 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 237 

cant, indication regarding this. The labor organiza- 
tion in the Winnipeg strike was practically perfect, 
and only a minute minority of the wage workers did 
not join the general walkout. Following its failure, 
the city political campaign was made to hinge on that 
issue, and Mayor Gray, upon whom the resentment of 
the workers concentrated, was re-elected by about 
3000 votes. Yet Winnipeg is predominantly an in- 
dustrial city, and the strike leaders claimed most em- 
phatically that they had a majority of the people 
with them. If this was a fair test it would seem clear 
that the wage earners do not constitute a majority of 
the people even in industrial America, and in the 
country districts and the small towns the majority 
must always be heavily against them. 



MOST WORKERS BEYOND REDS REACH 

But if the workers are in the majority it is by a 
narrow margin. For the purposes of "proletarian 
rule," for the class-struggle, the actual labor strength 
that could be gathered in any conceivable circum- 
stances would fall far short of majority. 

In the first place it is generally conceded by labor 
leaders, and feared by the Reds that the great bulk 
of Negroes in America, of whom something like 
5,000,000 are wage workers, will always remain out- 
side the organizations, no matter how great the efforts 
made to bring them in. Both race prejudice and tern- 



238 LABOR AND REVOLT 

peramental differences have made them uncomfortable 
in the unions. 

In the second place, there is a large class of well- 
paid wage workers, and these almost entirely of 
American birth and traditions, who will not join even 
the conservative labor unions, much less those of Rev- 
olutionary aims. This was demonstrated in the steel 
strike, when the aristocracy of the mills, the skilled 
rollers and millmen, refused to have anything to do 
with the union. 

There are also some 4,000,000 wage earners in do- 
mestic service, and while the organization of these has 
been attempted, it seems unlikely that it will ever be- 
come at all complete. 

Finally, the Revolutionists themselves admit that 
there will always be "considerable numbers of the 
working class who would join the bourgeoisie out of 
a perverted sense of patriotism." 

Thus from what would be at most a scanty majority 
for working class rule, must be deducted the bulk of 
the Negroes, many of the better class workers, most 
domestic servants, and all those with a "perverted 
sense of patriotism," which means any patriotism at 
all — altogether a good half of the wage earners. It 
is clear that "working class rule," in America at least, 
would be a rule of a small minority. 

But even this is not the full extent of the anti- 
democratic, or anti-majority, scheme of the Revolu- 
tionists. It has been shown that their idea is to con- 
trol Organized Labor, and that they believe they can 



( 



THE RAPE OF DEOMCRACY 239 

bring about Revolution as soon as this is done. Now 
Organized Labor in America is only about 20 per cent 
of the total wage workers. The American Federation 
of Labor on April 30, 19 19, had a membership of 
3,260,208 ; there were perhaps 400,000 in the railway 
brotherhoods, not affiliated with the Federation, 
200,000 in other non-affiliated labor unions, and if the 
L W. W. and W. L L U. be counted as labor unions 
something less than 1,000,000 more in these, a total 
that with all allowances will not exceed five millions. 
The number of wage workers in 19 10, it will be re- 
membered, was 20,000,000, it is much greater now, 
so that Organized Labor will barely make up a fifth 
of the whole. 

It is through this minority of a minority that the 
Reds hope to rule. 

REDS AIM AT RULE BY ONE IN 3/ 

Even more — for their scheme it is not necessary to 
convert the whole even of Organized Labor. Labor 
has been well educated and trained in the ''solidarity,'* 
which is one of the watchwords of the Revolution, and 
the Reds believe with much justification that as soon 
as their converts are numerous enough to control the 
official action of the unions, whether by majority vote 
or other means, they will be able to rule and use the 
Labor Giant's whole strength. Thus on present fig- 
ures a control of fewer than three million workers, 
properly distributed inside the unions, would give 



240 LABOR AND REVOLT 

them the lever they seek — three milUon to control and 
rule a hundred and ten million ! 

So the Revolution itself makes a clear denial of its 
own claim that it seeks "rule of the people," the more 
perfect fulfillment of Democracy. It excludes a great 
part of the nation from any share in power, it rejects 
all forms for learning the wishes of the people as a 
whole, it repudiates majority rule, and it hopes to win 
and hold power through fewer than one in thirty- 
seven in our population. 

It was shown in an earlier chapter that minority 
control almost certainly would make ^itself felt by 
Labor — ^not Revolution — through politics, by taking 
advantage of the power which any well organized body 
always can have under our form of government. 
While such a control might be regrettable, and might 
be unwisely used, it is nevertheless perfectly legiti- 
mate. It can be curbed at any moment that an equal 
body of citizens becomes determined in opposition, and 
it is far from Revolutionary. 

That, however, is not at all the plan of the Reds. It 
could be too easily defeated; the weapons used could 
be as readily employed by the opponents of Revolu- 
tion — in short, successful Revolution by this means 
would have to depend on conversion of a majority of 
the citizens, and the orderly processes of Democracy. 
However far the continued organization and "rev- 
olutionary education" of Labor may go, that is, how- 
ever much the Reds may succeed in increasing the 
size of the body through which they exercise power, 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 241 

they have no hope of attaining any such strength in 
any period of time within the range of human vision. 

ONLY HOPE IN ^'DIRECT ACTION"' 

There is only one means of creating and supporting 
a permanent minority rule. That is Force. To Force, 
then, the Reds turn; must turn if they hope to win. 

Here again is a difference of opinion regarding 
methods. Probably the greater number of Reds be- 
lieve that victory will be possible without violence, 
through industrial "direct action" by the workers. A 
smaller but powerful faction believes that in the first 
crisis violence will be necessary. It agrees, however, 
that industrial action should be used in the present 
stage of the attempt at Revolution. So there is no dis- 
agreement about the immediate programme. 

The demand for industrial action was first stated by 
Daniel De Leon. He said : 

The ballot is a weapon of civilization; the ballot is a 
weapon that no revolutionary movement of our times may 
ignore except at its own peril; the Socialist ballot is the 
emblem of right. For that very reason the Socialist bal- 
lot is 

Weaker than woman's tears, 
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, 
Less valiant than the virgin in the night. 
And skilless as unpracticed infancy, 

mnless it is backed up by the Might to enforce it. That re- 
quisite MIGHT is oummed up in the industrial organization 
of the working class. 



242 LABOR AND REVOLT 

The meaning of ''might through industrial organ- 
ization" is clear enough; it is the employment by the 
organized workers of their industrial power to force 
Revolution ; its theory is summed up in the I. W. W. 
slogan: 

Every strike is a small revolution and a dress re- 
hearsal FOR THE BIG ONE. 

This method of Revolution, of course, depends 
wholly upon the control of the labor unions, "these 
so all-important and indispensable levers of the pro- 
letarian revolution." For this purpose the craft 
unions, such as make up the American Federation of 
Labor, are almost useless, and the Reds with one 
accord therefore support and demand the organiza- 
tion of the "industrial union," the "one big union." 
This principle has already been defined, but since it 
is the basis of the immediate revolutionary plan, it 
may be well to review its features. 



A UNION TO THROTTLE THE WORLD 

Industrial unionism, according to an article which 
has been published in many Red papers, and which is 
here quoted from "The One Big Union Bulletin," is 
"the proposition that all wage workers come together 
in 'organization according to industry'; the grouping 
of the workers in each of the big divisions of industry, 
as a whole, into local, national and international indus- 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 243 

trial unions, all to be interlocked, dovetailed, welded 
into one big union of all wage workers; a big union 
bent on aggressively forging ahead and compelling 
shorter hours, more wages and better conditions in and 
out of the workshop and as each advance is made 
holding on grimly to the fresh gain with the determina- 
tion to push still farther forward — gaining strength 
from each victory and learning by every temporary 
set-back — until the working class is able to take pos- 
session and control of the machinery, premises and 
materials of production right from the capitalists' 
hands, and use that control to distribute the product 
entirely amongst the workers." 

The weakness of this scheme for securing imme- 
diate economic advantage is obvious, especially for 
skilled workers. They are to be included in the same 
unions with the unskilled, to have no power to nego- 
tiate on the basis of their higher training and pro- 
ductivity, and are certain to be submerged. This has 
already become apparent in Australia. 

But the advantage of the one big union for Revolu- 
tionary purposes, and for a weapon against industry 
and the state are equally obvious. It welds the entire 
working class — that can be organized — into a single 
body, and places the control of this immense force in 
the hands of a few leaders. Each industrial dispute 
can call to its support not only the whole strength of 
Organized Labor in its industry, or its city, but liter- 
ally, of the entire world. And this whole vast organ- 
ism can, at the nod of these leaders, be launched in 



244 LABOR AND REVOLT 

a gigantic offensive against any part of society, or any 
nation or the world. 

The Red leaders plan to use this power for several 
purposes short of the final revolution. The first of 
these is the improvement of the condition of the work- 
ers, the forcing of wages and hours demanded, by the 
use of the entire power, or so much of it as may be 
necessary, to support each individual quarrel. Says 
the Preamble of the L W. W. Manifesto: 

The interest of the working class (can be) upheld only 
by an organization formed in siich a way that all its mem- 
bers in any one indtastry, or in all industries if necessary, 
cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any one 
department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury 
to all. 

PLAN TO MULTIPLY LABOR TROUBLES 

Translated into non-revolutionary language this 
means that whenever a labor quarrel arises, other 
workers whose rights and interests are not affected 
shall also strike. This will inflict all the injuries of in- 
dustrial warfare not only upon employers who have 
no share in the original dispute and no power to affect 
its settlement but also on the general public which has 
done nothing and can do nothing. When this punish- 
ment of society should be inflicted, and how wide and 
violent it should be, would be decided, of course, by the 
Red leaders. 

This is the principle of the sympathetic strike, based 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 245 

on the "solidarity of the workers/^ on class-conscious- 
ness, and is the idea that is being vigorously incul- 
cated at present by the Red agitators among the work- 
ers, since it must be the foundation of all other action. 
It was on this basis that Seattle was tied up in a quar- 
rel of the ship-yard workers, and Winnipeg in behalf 
of a few metal trades employes, on this basis that 
efforts were made to stop all industry in Omaha be- 
cause of a dispute in the stock yards, in Pittsburgh 
over the steel strike, and in Boston when the policemen 
went out The idea presented to the union members 
in each case was that their united strength could gain 
for the men actually involved in the quarrel conces- 
sions which the power of the individual unioii could 
not force. 

DAHAGE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 

The second method of use of the industrial union 
planned by the Reds is in what has been Called the 
''burglar strike'*: a strike intended not to benefit the 
workers, but solely to "weaken Capital." Its theory 
is stated by Grover H. Perry, in "The Revolutionary 
I. W. W.," as follows: 

We will demand more and more wages from employers. 
We will demand and enforce shorter and shorter hours. As 
we gain these demands we are diminishing the profits of the 
bosses. We are taking away their power. We are gaining 
the power for ourselves. All the time we become more dis- 
ciplined. We become self-confident. We realize that with- 



i46 LABOk AND REVOLT 

out our labor no wealth can be produced. We fold our 
arms. The mills close. Industry is at a standstill. We 
then make owr proposition to our former bosses. 

"The a B. U. Bulletin" says: 

If we go on strike we must strike quickly, suddenly and 
certainly. Don't give the boss time to think or prepare plans. 
He might get the better of us and that would be bad for us 
and immoral. 

Strike when he has a big order to fill. That will hurt 
him more and us less, and that is moral. 

Tie up the industries in town, all the industries in all the 
towns, in the whole country, in the whole world if necessary. 
The strike will end quicker, and we will starve less, and 
that's good for us and therefore moral. 

Closely allied with the "burglar strike" is the I. 
W. W. practice of sab6tage. This is described by 
Robert Hunter in "Violence and the Labor Move- 
ment," dedicated to Eugene V. Debs: 

If a strike is lost, and the workers return only to break 
the machines, spoil the products, and generally disorganize 
a factory, that is sabotage. The idea of sabotage is that any 
dissatisfied workman shall undertake to break the machine 
and spoil the product of the machine in order to render the 
conduct of industry unprofitable, if not actually impossible. 
It may range all the way from the machine obstruction or 
destruction to dynamiting, train wrecking and arson. 

The best defense of this use comes from the brilliant 
Emma Goldman: 

Sabotage has been decried as criminal, even by so-called 
revolutionary Socialists. Of course, if you believe that 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 247 

property, which excludes the producer from its use, is justi- 
fiable, then sabotage is indeed a crime. But unless a Socialist 
continues under the influence of our bourgeois morality — a 
morality which enables the few to monopolize the earth at 
the expense of the many — he cannot consistently maintain 
that capitalistic property is inviolable. Sabotage undermines 
this form of private possession. Can it therefore be con- 
sidered criminal? On the contrary, it is ethical in the best 
sense, since it helps society to get rid of its worst foe, the 
most detrimental factor of social life. 

It is hardly necessary to point out the viciousness of 
this scheme. It is worse than stealing, for it is merely 
destruction. It involves taking an employer's pay, and 
then doing him injury instead of good. It does more 
than weaken the particular employer attacked, for it 
diminishes by just so much the amount of goods which 
all in the world must share, thus raising prices and 
increasing poverty. If the employers' property had 
all been won unfairly — and it has not been so won in 
most cases — there would still be no shred of justifi- 
cation for destroying it, unless it were actually being 
used against society. Practically all active capital is 
busy in the service of society, however excessive may 
be the usury that some capitalists exact, and to destroy 
any part of it is to weaken and rob society. Yet the 
Revolution justifies this, and justifies it in the pious 
hope of making America another Russia ! 

STRIKES TO OVERRULE ELECTIONS 

More important and dangerous than either the sym- 
pathetic or the "burglar" strike, in that it hits directly 



248 LABOR AND REVOLT 

at the foundations of Democracy, is a form of direct 
action new to America — ^the political strike. Its theory 
is that the power of the tremendous strike possible un- 
der industrial unionism to injure the nation as a whole 
(or indeed of whatever power any labor body can 
exert through a strike) is to be used to enforce the 
wishes of Labor or a part of Labor against those of 
the nation in political matters. 

The purpose of the Reds to use this is shown in an 
editorial from The Class Struggle, organ of the Left 
Wing, and signed "F," presumably by Louis Friana, 
a "Left Wing" leader and one of the editors of the 
magazine. He says: 

In those two strikes (Seattle and Bwtte) there was mani- 
fest that primitive initial mass-action which, when develop- 
ing into the final revolutionary form, becomes the dynamic 
method of the proletariat for the conquest of power. . . . 
Out of these strikes the Socialist must develop larger action, 
must marshal and direct the proletariat for the conquest of 
power. . . . The political strike is new to American Labor. 
But it is indispensable. It must come. It is the function of 
the left-wing Socialist to develop an intense propaganda in 
favor of this method of struggle, to develop out of the 
strikes of the proletariat the concept and the action of the 
mass-strike." 

The possible uses of the political strike for minor- 
ity control, and for Revolutionary purposes generally, 
are startling. Under its theory any group of workers 
may use their power to prevent the carrying out of any 
public policy which they do not approve. Dock work- 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 249 

ers, by a strike against the tariff, could paralyze its 
operation, or by striking against a foreign war could 
make it almost impossible to move troops or supplies. 
An instance of their use of this power, in an excellent 
cause, however, was the refusal of the British Sea- 
men's Union to permit the sailing of the Radical 
British leaders to the Stockholm conference — a refusal 
which was made good against the protests of the gov- 
ernment — by calling a strike on every vessel on which 
the delegates might take passage. 

Under this policy it would be possible for the rail- 
way brotherhoods to tie up all transportation because 
of their disapproval of intervention in Mexico, or for 
the miners to freeze the country if they were dissat- 
isfied with the Federal Bank Act. Not only possible, 
but for believers in the political strike entirely jus- 
tifiable. 

THE reds' big bertha — THE GENERAL STRIKE 

Combining the features of all these methods is the 
final "peaceful" Revolutionary weapon — the general 
strike. Its scope, according to Emma Goldman, is the 
universal "stoppage of work, the cessation of labor." 
It is both political and industrial, and it aims to throw 
the whole power of all Labor against society on the 
point at issue — and finally to force the "socialization 
of industry" and the "proletarian dictatorship." 

It need not, however, wait till all the workers are 
ready for it, but according to Miss Goldman, "initiated 



2SO LABOR AND REVOLT 

by one determined organization, by one industry or by 
a small, conscious minority among the workers, it be- 
comes the industrial cry of *stop thief,' which is soon 
taken up by many other industries, spreading like wild- 
fire in a very short time." 

Thus we may have general strikes covering an in- 
dustry, a city, or a state, before the final day comes 
when a "strike, starting in some one city, will spread 
to all the others, and on the day that it ties up the 
whole country the regular governments will go on the 
scrap heap, because the workers will rule." 

The efforts of workers to rule through the general 
strike were shown both in Seattle, where the strike 
committee offered to take over the municipal functions 
during the strike, and in Winnipeg, where they actu- 
ally seized governmental power, and issued orders to 
the city's employes. America has had a taste of what 
such a strike would mean in the soft-coal miners' 
walk-out, and has seen Congress wilt before the threat 
of a general strike on the railroads, when it passed the 
Adamson law. Yet there is still a very inadequate 
understanding of the weight that would be behind the 
blow of this Red bludgeon, should it once be swung 
against society and the nation. 

"Paralysis of industry" is a phrase that covers the 
possibility of more horrors than the world has known 
since the days of continent-wide famines. It means 
the stopping of all trains, all shipping, all mails, all 
wire communication, all newspapers, all street car 
transportation, all buying and selling, the closing of 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 251 

all stores, the shutting down of the city water- works 
and the leaving of the streets uncleaned — all this in 
addition to the tremendous losses that would follow 
the closing down of all factories, losses to be measured 
not in money alone, but in a shortage of manufactured 
goods like that which sent prices soaring and brought 
discomfort and even misery to millions during the 
World War. 



PROGRESS BY STARVATION 

But most of all it means starvation. No food could 
reach the millions in the great cities through the ordi- 
nary means of transportation — and those cities are at 
all times within a few days of starvation — if they were 
once left to their own resources. It means no milk 
for the babies — ^the beginning of starvation for them 
within a single twenty-four hour period. The infant 
death rate actually went up in Winnipeg, the one city 
where the general strike has been effective, and the 
efforts by the strike committee to provide for the 
workers' children, without permitting milk to reach 
the little ones of non-strikers, were desperate. 

It is starvation, more than any other one thing, upon 
which the Reds rely to make the general strike effec- 
tive, and it is openly discussed in their propaganda. 
In Russia starvation is one of the weapons used to 
destroy the bourgeoisie, the laws specifically limiting 
the amount of food they may have to a quantity far 
too low to sustain life. 



2S2 LABOR AND REVOLT 

"What will happen," asks an unsigned Revolution- 
ary article which has made the rounds of the Red 
press, "if Labor withholds its power to produce?" 

It answers itself : 

Capitalists, priests, politicians, press hirelings, thugs, slug- 
gers, hangmen, policemen and all creeping and crawling 
things that suck the blood of the common working man 
would die of starvation. 

"One of the objections of politicians to the general 
strike," says Emma Goldman, meaning by "politicians" 
Socialists who favor political methods, "is that the 
workers would also suffer for the necessaries of life. 
In the first place, the workers are past masters in going 
hungry ; secondly, it is certain that a General Strike is 
surer of prompt settlement than an ordinary strike." 

"the public be damned" 
She also says: 

If . . . the "innocent public", has not enough feeling of 
solidarity to insist that these men should get enough to live 
on, the public has forfeited the sympathy of the strikers and 
must take the consequences. 

The injury to the "innocent public," to the thousands 
or millions who can have no influence in the settle- 
ment of a general strike except as the sight of their 
suffering affects those whom the revolutionists happen 
to be attacking, is an accepted thing by the Reds. An 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 253 

O. B. U. leader put the situation even more bluntly 
than Miss Goldman does, in a conversation. 

"We don't owe those people anything," he de- 
clared. "They have never done anything to help the 
working man against Capital. They ought to be will- 
ing to suffer in a fight for principle, like this, anyhow. 
And even if they're not willing, they've got to. The 
Allies made millions suffer in a capitalistic war, and 
everybody around here, except the class-conscious 
workers, approved. The principle in a general strike 
is the same, but with all the justice on our side. Our 
fight is worth all the suffering it may cause." 

This is the "peaceful" weapon the Red leaders 
would substitute for a violent revolution, if possible. 
It is a weapon of tremendous power, and one which, 
even if it should not succeed, would cause loss, misery 
and if prolonged, death almost as widespread and quite 
as certainly, as armed revolt. 



FINALLY — SLAUGHTER 

Behind this menace stands the threat of the ultimate 
embodiment of force — slaughter. To some Reds it is 
a thing to be desired and worked for; to all it is the 
final resource if other devices fail. 

J. Helborg, an organizer for the Soviet, complained 
to his chief of Finns, who "are of the invertebrate 
typo, waiting for the bloodless revolution." Not all 
the Reds are "invertebrate." Following are a few of 



254 LABOR AND REVOLT 

the things they have said in the face of the Espionage 
act and the danger of prosecution: 

There is only one thing to do. take over the 
STATE. Are the members of your local prepared to take 
over and conduct wisely and well the affairs of your town 
and country? Are you ready to meet the militia when the 
powers of the state and courts are against you? . . . Look 
over the enclosed samples of our courses in "Elements of 
Socialism" which will cost you only $i per member in 
a class of six or more. (From a circular letter of the Rand 
School.) 

Industrial unionism alone cannot perform the revolution- 
ary act of the seizure of the power of the state, since under 
the conditions of Capitalism it is impossible to organize the 
whole working class, or an overwhelming majority, into in- 
dustrial unions. (From the Manifesto of the Left Wing.) 

A general strike of "folded arms" can accomplish only one 
thing, the cessation of industry, but that in itself is not 
sufficient, nor what the I. W. W. is striving for. ... To 
take over industry is a positive act, and a revolutionary one, 
and "folded arms" will not accomplish the aim in view. 
(From Freedom, June, 19 19.) 

Nations make war in order to add to their possessions. . . . 
A class will fight to the death with another class over profits 
or wages. In war killing people and burning cities is thought 
to be a patriotic work. If successful it is considered to be 
right and fine. 

When the worker, either through experience or a study 
of Socialism, comes to know this truth, he acts accordingly. 
He retains absolutely no respect for the property "rights" of 
the profit-takers. He will use any weapon that will win his 
fight. He knows that the present laws of property are 
made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not 
hesitate to break them. He knows that whatever action 



THE RAPE OF DEMOCRACY 255 

advances the interests of the working class is right, because 
it will save the workers from destruction and death. (From 
Industrial Socialism.) 

We cannot expect, and we do not expect anything but a 
fight, and a very nasty fight, from the capitalistic class. 
We know, after having studied the proposition, that there is 
only one thing that the capitalistic class of this or any other 
country understands, there is just one argument that they 
can listen to — and that is power. (Dennis E. Batt in a speech 
in Madison Square Garden.) 

In order to throw over the rule of the tyrants we must 
use weapons of the most modern invention, as it would be 
ridiculous to try to destroy a first class battleship with a row- 
boat. . . . We must then join actively our fighting com- 
rades of Europe. . . . Let us attack with the ferocity of 
a tiger, from all sides, our torturer-capitalism with every 
available weapon. (From The Class Struggle; Finnish 
I. W. W.) 

"The Left Wing" hopes that the proletariat will con- 
quer its enemy, the capitalistic class, with as little bloodshed 
as possible. (From The New York Communist.) 

The United States is in the grip of a bloody revolution. 
Thousand of workers are slaughtered by machine guns in 
New York City ! Washington is on fire ! Industry is at a 
standstill and thousands of workers are starving ! The gov- 
ernment is using the most brutal and repressive measures to 
put down the revolution ! Disorganization, crime, chaos, 
rape, murder and arson are the order of the day — the in- 
evitable results of social revolution ! 

The above is what we may expect to see on the front 
pages of what few newspapers survive the upheaval. . . . 

It is not yet too late to avoid this trouble and sanguinary 
strike . . . provided that the I. W. W. is allowed to carry 
out its programme of organizing and educating the workers 
for the purpose of taking control of, and operating industry. 



2s6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

and giving to those who work the fwll social value of their 
labor. (From The Rebel Worker, 1. W. W.) 

In other words, this is what will happen unless the 
I. W. W. is given free rein ! 

These are the answers that the Revolution itself 
makes to its own claims that it is really democratic, 
that it wishes rule of the people, equality, and freedom, 
and that it will bring these things. 

The answers are clear. 

The Revolution, on its own statements, seeks class 
rule, minority rule, won and held by force, and by 
force alone. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 

The Red appeal to idealism and to greed — Incitement to theft — 
To irresponsibility — Exploitation of real wrongs and efforts 
to create new ones — Stirring up lawlessness — Stirring up 
hatreds — Efforts to stimulate Negro unrest — Plan of cam- 
paign, Radical Negro press, sex equality, incitement to race 
riot and reprisal — The cultivation of aliens and national 
disunity — The foreign language press — Schools of Revolu- 
tion — Labor their victim — Opposition to all reform — ^the line 
between Red and Radical — The strategy of the Reds : strikes, 
panic and misery, to bring on Revolution. 

Could there be an appeal more stirring to the best 
that is in a man than this ? 

Bowed and humiliated as you are, by you despised ever so 
much, your mothers, wives and sisters forced to lives of 
shame, your children stunted and starved, you hold in these 
two hands of yours the power to save not only yourself, 
your mothers, wives and sisters and your children, but the 
whole human race. The world lies in the hollow of your 
dirty, blacked, horny right hand — save it!" 

For the sake of your wives, mothers, and children, 
save the world! 

How? 

By Revolution, of course, for this is an I. W. W. 
appeal ! 

257 



2S8 LABOR AND REVOLTj 

The whole Revolution, in its campaign, makes a 
strong demand upon idealism, and a strong bid for its 
support. Brotherhood, freedom, a better life and bet- 
ter living, all to follow the class-war! 

The working class, through securing freedom for itself, 
will liberate the race. Socialism will free not only the 
slave but the slave-driver and the slave-owner. , . . Peace 
and brotherhood will come with freedom. 

Thus beautifully ends "Industrial Socialism," one 
of whose authors is William D. Haywood, head of the 
I. W. W. 

Up with the immediate demand of the international work- 
ing-class: A peace based on the abolition of capitalist pro- 
duction and the inauguration of the Universal Brotherhood 
of Man — the Socialist Commonwealth, 

So says Dannenberg in "Reform or Revolution." 
It is so all along the line: the Revolution will abol- 
ish crime, for crimes are caused by Capitalism; the 
Revolution will abolish poverty, for poverty is caused 
by Capitalism; the Revolution will abolish war, for 
war is caused by capitalistic rivalries; the Revolution 
will end all jealousies, all hardships, all injustice, all 
enmities, all wrong. It demands nothing except a 
new and narrow class loyalty, instead of loyalty to 
country to religion or to morality — and it promises 
saviorhood. 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 259 



RAPINE IN THE GARMENTS OF IDEALISM 

But the Revolution has another appeal, that it uses 
almost in the same breath with this, to idealism. "Ex- 
propriation" is its keynote — the seizure of property. 
"It is yours, take it," it tells the workers, though the 
appeal to greed of loot is usually dressed in some such 
semi-idealistic form as this: 

We have fed you all for a thousand years, 

And you hail us still unfed, 
Though there's never a dollar of all your "wealth 

But marks the workers' dead. 
We have yielded our best to give you rest, 

And you lie on a crimson wool; 
For if blood be the price of all your wealth. 

Good God, we ha' paid it in full. 

The Finnish Class Struggle goes farther. It 
pubHshes a story entitled "The Theft," the moral of 
which is to encourage stealing. It tells of an immi- 
grant of good family, brought up in the "old mo- 
rality," who after two years in America learned that 
"the entire community is founded on stealing." So he 
stole a pocketbook from a rich farmer. The story 
concludes: 

The following night from the small country station a 
well dressed man boards the train. He eats a plentiful 
dinner in the dining car, and tips the waiter generously: 
After that he retires to a quiet nook to enjoy a good cigar. 
He smiles behind the smoke and nods his head as if taking 



V 

26o LABOR AND REVOLT 

leave of something that others cannot see. But we know 
that this man is taking leave of the honesty of the old view- 
point which does not fit into the frame of the new con- 
viction of the world. 

So idealism is in the revolution — but also loot. 

And irresponsibility, too. 

**The individual who is vigilant enough to combat 
the one harmless appearing demand on him is the one 
who is fitted for freedom/' says Elizabeth Byrne in 
"The Modern School." This irresponsibility is a lure 
that runs strongly through the Revolutionary propa- 
ganda — it is called "freedom." Freedom from all de- 
mands, from duty to country, or benefactors, or wives 
and children (through community of women and state 
care of babies) from the need of assuring even your 
own support. And laziness also hears a whisper — 
shorter and shorter hours, "a third of the present 
working time," "there is no reason why a man should 
work more than ten hours in a week or two months in 
a year." 

So the Revolution offers all things to all men and 
to all women ; ideals to the idealist, but whatever 
baser things are wanted by the baser natured — loot, 
lust, laziness and license. 

THE PLANTING OF DISCONTENT 

Of course, this kind of appeal is far from enough 
to cause Revolution. Mankind, as a whole, is far too 
decent. The strongest motive, as has been seen 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 261 

through all their activities, must necessarily be discon- 
tent. Wrongs, real or fancied, are exploited: so are 
profiteering, which is both, legal "oppression," 
whether in the courts or in the defense of property 
or lives against riot; inequality of all kinds — every- 
thing that can be turned to use. 

But all of these motives together are not enough, 
and the Reds themselves recognize this. 

''Only a tiny fraction of our iio,ooa,ooo people are 
ready for any social change," declared James Oneal, 
a member of the National Executive Committee of the 
Socialist Party, after his return from Europe. "Here 
in America we have no vast hordes stricken with 
famine, made desperate by the war and ready for 
working class control. . . . There is no great peas- 
antry made desperate by their sufferings and ready to 
unite with mutinous soldiers and city workers. . . , 
The overwhelming masses of the workers have not 
been touched by Socialist education." 

The Reds have opened another phase of their cam- 
paign, therefore, and attempt to cultivate discontent 
where none exists and to create fictitious wrongs. 
Part of this attempt is in urging Labor to bad faith 
with employers, a course sure to bring reprisals and 
injury to the laborers, and much is in stimulating de- 
sires and demands that cannot be fulfilled. But its 
main effort is toward lawlessness, toward actions 
which will bring the Reds' dupes into violent contact 
with the law, and give ground for the repeated dia- 
tribes against the government, its police, its courts, 



262 LABOR AND REVOLT 

and its jails, with which the Red propaganda is filled. 
One incitement to lawlessness was quoted above, in 
the story intended as an encouragement to stealing. 
Here is another: 

A rioting mob is the one and only possible means for 
organizing a fight in the every day, as well as in these last 
open and decisive, blood-battles between the capitalists and 
the working classes. ("Luckkataistelu.") 

Not that the agitators themselves risk their own 
skins in any riot. 

"They are always clever enough to say, *You ought 
to go out and fight.* They do not say, We will lead 
you.* They don't do that. They are not game 
enough," remarked President Holland of the New 
York State Federation of Labor, a man who has 
been in the thick of the labor fight against Revolution. 

HATRED THE REAL SPIRIT OF REVOLT 

All these things, the real, the imagined or the cre- 
ated causes of discontent, are turned by the Reds in a 
single direction, and one far more likely to work 
toward their goal of violent Revolution than is any 
idealism. This spur to revolt is hatred. All their lan- 
guage is couched to stimulate it. The death of men 
in a mine accident is "social murder" due to "profit- 
taking" any making of profits, interest or rent is 
"robbery"; the word "starvation" appears over and 
over again in a country where actual starvation is 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 263 

almost unknown, and the standard of living is the 
highest in the world; and we are constantly being 
shown pictures of workers* wives and daughters 
driven to prostitution by poverty. So resentment, 
hatred, the desire for revenge, are adcjed to the 
''ideals" to which Revolution makes its appeal. 

Moreover there are two weak spots in the Amer- 
ican social structure, two points at which serious 
danger of appalling evil at hand or to come is so ap- 
parent that the problems they present are constantly 
receiving the most careful thought and delicate han- 
dling from American statesmen and social workers. 
At these the Reds strike — strike not to heal but to 
inflame. 



RACE-WAR TO SUPPORT CLASS- WAR 

The first of these is the Negro question. There are 
many reasons why anyone engaged sincerely in the 
task of uplifting society, as the Revolutionaries claim 
to be, should deal with this question. Its solution, 
even in theory, has defied the best thought that could 
be given it. 

In the meanwhile the treatment of the Negro has 
been such as to give the agitators a very real basis for 
exploiting discontent. Their tirades about injustice, 
inequality, oppression, even robbery, come far nearer 
being true in the case of the Negro than in any other. 
Only too often they are utterly true. There are parts 
of this country where the Negro has fewer rights than 



264' LABOR AND REVOLT 

a mule — less protection from the law ; for the burning 
alive of a mule by a crowd of "leading citizens" of any- 
state whatever would produce a wave of indignation 
that would sweep the country and insure punishment 
of every man who shared in it, while a Negro may be 
burned in several states, almost without comment, and 
entirely without punishment. 

But this is not the real reason for the sudden Red 
solicitude for the Negro. The Reds themselves allege 
two reasons: first, that Negroes have often been used 
as strike breakers, and that the presence of so large 
an unorganized and perhaps unorganizable body of 
labor in the country threatens the success of the in- 
dustrial union scheme ; second, that when the Revolu- 
tion starts, the Negroes may be armed and used to 
suppress the revolt of the white workers! There is 
another reason, not stated, but apparent from the 
whole tenor and method of the Red agitation among 
the Negroes — the knowledge that any intensification 
of the race question, and disturbance of the already 
tense and unstable conditions in the South, will make 
Revolution easier. 

It was in the hope of provoking race war that the 
German propaganda was carried to the Negro by 
emissaries who sneaked across the Mexican border, 
promising the blacks everything from free land to 
white wives and urging revolt. This propaganda of 
race war has been taken over by the Reds, and is now 
being pushed, largely by Negroes, but with Red 
backing. 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 265 



THE SEED OF RACE OUTBREAKS 

An outline of methods which should be employed by 
Radicals among the blacks was found in the files of 
the Rand School, when it was raided by agents of the 
Lusk Committee. It was signed by W. A. Domingo, 
la West Indian Negro, and a leader in the race agita- 
tion. He wrote: 

First: They must unequivocally condemn all forms of in- 
justice practiced against Negroes, and encouch same in their 
declarations of principles and platforms, and Socialist 
officials and legislators must embrace every opportunity to 
make public denouncement of lynchings, etc. 

Second: They must give the Negro more prominence in 
their discussions, whether by speech or by publications rela- 
tive to injustice in America. 

Third: They must seek to attract Negroes to their meet- 
ings and to induce them to become members of their or- 
ganizations. 

Fourth: Those who are members of labor unions must 
work for the repeal of all racially discriminatory practices 
in their organizations, and endeavor to gain the admission 
of Negroes into them on terms of equality. 

Fifth: They must have specially prepared propaganda 
showing Negroes how they as a group are likely to benefit 
and improve their social and economic status by any radical 
change in the present economic system. 

Sixth : Radical Negro publications must be supported finan- 
cially even if subventions have to be made to them. 

Seventh : Radical white speakers must be instructed to try 
and reach Negro audiences, while competent paid Negro 
speakers must be kept touring the country spreading radical 
propaganda. 



266 LABOR AND REVOLT 

The propaganda, he goes on, "should aim to change 
the race-conscious Negro into a class-conscious 
worker. In supporting radical Negro publications 
financially white Radicals will be making their best 
investment. . . . Let Negro ministers and news- 
papers preach Socialism and the Negro race will be 
converted to it." He speaks of Negro preachers as 
**the most parasitical of all celestial navigators.'* 

This document, the Rand School secretary declared, 
had been ordered sent back to the writer, on the 
ground that it was not suitable for publication. If it 
was ever intended for publication, this is likely, since 
so frank a revelation of such plans would hardly be 
suitable from the Red point of view. 

At any rate, the programme is being carried out, in 
bulk and in detail. 

HEARTS THAT BLEED TO ORDER 

Except for members of the I. W. W., the Radicals' 
hearts have not been stirred by the Negroes' affairs 
and wrongs till recently. Now the Radical press is 
ablaze with them. Every lynching, every riot, every- 
thing that is or can be twisted into an injustice to the 
Negro is "played up" in the yellowest style. When- 
ever there are Negroes within reach the Red agitators 
take pains to say a few words for them. The work 
inside the labor unions is being pushed. 

A Radical Negro press has sprung up and spread, 
until there is hardly a city without such a publication; 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 267 

jthere are dailies, weeklies and monthlies. Prominent 
among these are The Negro World, of which Do- 
mingo is editor, The Messenger, which carries the 
headhne, "A New Crowd — A New Negro," and The 
Crusader, founded in October, 19 18, but "The Maga- 
zine Nearly Every Negro Reads." 

The Messenger may be taken as typical of them. 
In a single number it contained the following articles : 
"Japan and the Race Issue," "The Break-up of the 
A. F. of L.," "Radical Renegades," "The March of 
Soviet Government," "How Germans Treated Negro 
Soldiers" (which contains the statement that "the 
countrymen with whom the black men were fighting 
and for whose liberty they were dying, treated them 
worse than the enemy whose duty it was to kill the 
Negro soldiers, and whom the Negroes were killing), 
"New Leadership for the Negro," "The League of 
White Capitalistic Governments," "The Negro, a 
Menace to Radicalism," "We Want More Bolshevik 
Patriotism," etc. 



A PROMISE OF WHITE WOMEN 

The publications of the white Radicals, in addition 
to all the forms of propaganda that might be expected, 
give grounds to their Negro readers for believing that 
all Reds even want social equality in sex matters — as 
some Anarchists do. The Liberator, for instance, 
edited by Max Eastman and successor to his piebald 



268 LABOR AND REVOLT 

magazine The Masses, which was suppressed for 
disloyalty, publishes the following poem by a Negro: 

THE BARRIER 

I must not gaze at them, although 

Your eyes are dawning day; 
I must not watch you as you go 

Your sun-illumined way ; 

I hear but I must never heed 

The fascinating note 
Which fluting like a river reed 

Comes from vour trembling throat; 

I must not see upon your face 
Love's softly glowing spark j 
For there's the barrier of race, 
"" You're fair and I am dark. 

BLACKS URGED TO RIOT 

The Spoken propaganda of the agitators is a little 
more frank than that which is published since it is 
always possible to claim that one has been misquoted, 
in case the government inquires. Messrs. Randolph 
and Owen, editors of The Messenger, spoke in Bos- 
ton in July, 19 19, and according to The Boston 
Chronicle, a Negro paper: 

They will accept no compromise. They will be free, not 
half free. Their advice to Negroes is to strike when it is 
necessary to do so for their economic interest. To stop 
lynching they suggest force against the lynchers. One him- 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 269 

dred well armed Negroes can stop a lynching anywhere, they 
say. Their whole programme is epitomized in the one word 
— fight! . . . Never before have we heard two young 
men presenting a cause to their people — a cause so near 
to their hearts, so calmly, so dispassionately, and so logically. 

"Within the next few months," declared Marcus 
Garvey, a New York Negro at a public meeting there 
on August 26, 19 1 9, "our organization will be in such 
a condition that if there is a lynching in the South and 
a white man cannot be held to account down there, the 
button will be pushed here, and a white man in New 
York will be lynched. . . . The Negro shed his blood 
in the great war, and the same blood will continue to 
be sacrificed until we get the rights we demand." 

So the Revolution tries to add the horrors of race- 
war to those of class-war! 



WORK FOR NATIONAL DISUNITY 

The second weak spot in our American structure at 
which the Reds strike is only less dangerous — the un- 
Americanized alien. The campaign of national dis- 
unity which they are carrying on is, unlike the rather 
forced agitation among the Negroes, entirely natural 
to the Radicals, both from their personal connections 
and their theory. The alien origin of the revolution- 
ary doctrines, the enemy-alien domination of Amer- 
ican Socialism, the fact that the Socialist Party here 
has always been composed largely of those of German 
birth, and the anti-patriotic, international character 



270 LABOR AND REVOLT 

of the form of society for which they are working, 
combine to make the cultivation of disunity most con- 
genial to them. 

The situation in this country, moreover, is pecu- 
liarly advantageous for that campaign. Except pos- 
sibly Canada no nation has so large a percentage of 
aliens and alien-born within its borders. Practically 
all of the newcomers are from countries where op- 
pression and injustice drove them forth — Russian 
Jews, Hungarians, Slavs of many types, all with an 
inbred resentment against society. Many of the earlier 
immigrants, too, like the Irish, still have nationalistic 
resentments which can be used. There is also the great 
body of Teutonic origin smarting under the castigation 
which the disloyalty of many of their number earned 
during the World War, and with little love for the 
country that helped vanquish their **Vaterland." It is 
a most fallow field for Revolutionary cultivation. 

This has not been lacking, though the appeal has not 
been made to the alien, as an alien, in the direct way 
in which Negro support has been sought. But the 
agitators, as in the steel strike, have found in the alien 
their readiest, sometimes their only, convert. The re- 
sult has been that high labor leaders estimate that 
along the Atlantic Coast at least 85 per cent of the 
Radical strength among the workers lies with un-nat- 
uralized aliens, and that of the remaining 15 per cent 
about half is foreign-born. The charge of alien blood 
cannot be made in the We'St, however, for Radicalism 
there has made its way among thousands of native 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 271 

born Americans. But for the country, as a whole, it 
may safely be said that nearly 75 per cent of the Revo- 
lutionaries are un-Americanized. 



FIGHT AGAINST AMERICANIZATION 

The first and most obvious evidence of the campaign 
for disunity is to be found in the foreign language 
press of the Reds. More than half of their publica- 
tions are in some other language than English. Of the 
"official" I. W. W. publications, for example, four are 
in English, the others being in Spanish, Russian, 
Italian, Swedish, Yiddish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and 
Finnish. The value of the foreign-language press as 
a quarantine against Americanism is recognized by 
Reds. Domingo, in that article which was "not suit- 
able for publication," discusses the differences between 
propaganda among Negroes and Jews, and remarks 
that "Jews have a distinctive language press which 
acts as a kind of a screen against strictly 'national' 
ideas." 

The fight which the Reds make against the Amer- 
icanization of the aliens through their constant attacks 
on everything American has been indicated in the dis- 
cussion of the anti-American attitude of Radicalism, 
but there is one more quotation that is worth giving. 
It is from The International Weekly, and was pub- 
lished in Seattle shortly before the Revolutionary 
strike there: 

The rosy promise of "Freedom for all, forever" is dis- 



272 LABOR AND REVOLT 

pelled before the reality of the bankruptcy of capitalism. 
The world may now be safe for democracy of the soup- 
house variety, but that is small consolation to the people 
who have slaved and sacrificed for some vague thing which 
they believed would guarantee happiness and prosperity for 
them. 

When again the flabby-brained and loose-lipped orators 
of the capitalistic class come before the workers with their 
rosy promise, they will hear the shout: 

Ye are liars! 

Your Democracy is a lie ! 

Your Freedom is a lie! 

Your Prosperity is a lie! 

Your Equality is a lie! 

Your Humanity is a lie! 

Your Liberty is a lie! 

Your Religion is a lie! 

Your Eternal Justice is a lie! • 

Your God is a lie! 

Everything you praise, all that you eulogize and adore, 
is a lie! 

The Reds* action toward the alien is as definite on 
the negative side as on the positive. 

"Have you ever heard any of the leaders of these 
radical movements urge their hearers to become citi- 
zens?" Mr. Holland v^as asked when he was on the 
witness stand before the Lusk Committee. He has 
heard some hundreds of Efedical speeches. 

"Never in all my experience," he replied. 

In short, the Red hopes to make Revolution easier 
by preventing the Americanization of the new arrivals, 
and making them into a lever against the nation that 
has sheltered them. 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 273 

EDUCATION IN REVOLUTION 

For this campaign of hatred, discontent, race preju- 
dice and disunity, this cuUivation of chaos — the Reds 
are already holding schools of Revolution. The Rand 
School, with its correspondence courses in Socialism, 
and its class-room teachings by Red leaders, has been 
described. There is a similar one in Chicago. The 
system by which New York's East Side was able to 
send to Russia the thousands of Jews who have been 
so tremendous a factor in the Soviet misgovernment 
has never been unearthed, but these thousands went 
as if in response to an expected call, and took their 
places as if prepared for them in advance. 

Greatest of all these schools are the Revolutionary 
strikes which have been cited — Seattle, Winnipeg, 
Toronto, Omaha, Lawrence, Butte and others. 

"We are trying them out," a Red Leader said dur- 
ing one of them. "We may fail here, of course, we 
really expect to, but we are learning all the time, and 
some day we'll put it over. We have to study all the 
problems of feeding the workers and not the bour- 
geoisie, of taking over the government functions, and 
of controlling industry. We can only learn by experi- 
ence, and these are our schools." 

In these strikes Labor is the Red's victim. Few of 
the workers, comparatively few even of the leaders, 
dream that they are taking part in a Revolutionary 
attempt. The Reds offer some pretext that will appeal 
to the ordinary motives that actuate the union man. 



274 LABOR AND REVOLT 

make some attacks on the old-line labor officials to 
convince the workers that the new leaders are more 
truly interested in their welfare, give some impossible 
promises of gains to be made, make some fervid 
appeals to class sympathy — and the Revolutionary 
school is in session. 

Of course the victimized workers suffer. The hid- 
den power which provides funds for these Red schools 
wastes no money, and financial help does not come to 
the individual worker till he can prove to the strike 
leaders that his own savings are exhausted. He 
suffers, too, with the rest of the city, in lack of food, 
and all the other hardships of the strike. 

So Labor pays for its own "education" in Revolu- 
tion. The schools of Revolution are as merciless and 
as vicious an exploitation of the worker, for purposes 
he cannot understand and would not approve, as any 
of which Capitalism has been guilty. 

REFORM DEADLY TO REVOLUTION 

One more feature of the Revolution deserves a 
moment's attention: its fear and hatred of reform, 
and denunciation of reforms and reformers, 

"Down with reform, palliation and compromise!" 
shrieks Karl Dannenberg, of the Socialist Labor 
Party. 

Joy Lovestone, writing in The Communist, says: 

Why do capitalists grant reforms? There are two rea- 
sons. First, in order to stifle the ever-increasing class- 
consciowsness of the workers. ... By granting certain 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 275 

"improvements" the capitalist hides the class nature of the 
present system of production. . . . There is another reason 
for the capitalists' granting "improvements" in the workers' 
conditions. The only use the capitalist has for the prole- 
tariat is exploitation. But to be capable of exploitation the 
workers must exist. . . . Their investigators have made ex- 
tensive studies proving that efficiency can be increased by 
shorter hours, and "improvements" in working conditions. 
The improved methods of production and business organiza- 
tion intensify the degree of exploitation. Hence capitalism 
can well stand "reform" — or change of tactics in its exploita- 
tion of the working class. 

Morris Zucker, another of the Communists, is even 
more frank: 

The experiences of the past few years have brought home 
to us many vital and important lessons. Foremost among 
them is the one great lesson that the advocacy of immediate 
demands of social reformism is not only incompatible with 
the mission of a revolutionary movement, but is destructive 
of the movement itself. 

Reform, the Reds have learned, weakens the Revo- 
lutionary movement, because it makes the v^orkers 
more contented, and diminishes unrest. Therefore 
reform must be opposed ! No benefits to the workers 
are worth weighing against the progress of the 
Revolution ! 

So we have here a final check on the sincerity of the 
Reds and the genuineness of their protestations that 
the welfare of the laboring classes is the object of 
their mission; we have them directly fighting the one 
immediate and certain method of accomplishing the 
things for which they profess to' stand. 



276 LABOR AND REVOLT 

So perfect is this check that it fairly marks the line 
between Liberalism and Revolution — sl line often diffi- 
cult to draw in these days of chameleon-tinted beliefs. 
The Liberal, however Radical he may be, however 
extensive the changes he wishes to bring about in the 
structure of society, cannot be classed as a Revolution- 
ist or as dangerous to society, so long as the method 
on which he depends for accomplishing those changes 
is reform, after thorough discussion and in gradual 
stages. 

The true Revolutionist, on the other hand, is he 
who, for the sake of the vague and dangerous benefits 
of rule by the least intelligent class of society, for the 
sake of an experiment of which the only sure results 
are savagery, opportunity for loot and for the exer- 
cise of vast power by new, untrained and untried 
leaders, would loose all the horrors of that class-war 
which means that '^you go back to the jungle, whether 
you want to or not" The true Revolutionist demands 
a class-war that wnll end, in the words of Marx*s 
Communist Manifesto, '^either in a revolutionary re- 
constitution of society at large, or the common ruin 
of the contending classes/' 

THE "back to the JUNGLE" CAMPAIGN 

With all these details in mind, it now becomes pos- 
sible to see the Revolutionary campaign as a whole, its 
purposes, its methods and its strategy. 

We have seen that there is in America a vast propa- 



THE CULTIVATION OF CHAOS 277 

ganda, splendidly organized, heavily financed, and 
backed by those forces which fought civilization dur- 
ing war, and by men who have great stakes to win 
and little to lose, as well as by many well-meaning 
dreamers. This propaganda is demanding Revolu- 
tion, but without any real or constructive programme 
for the carrying out of the promises it makes, with no 
agreement even on the vague outlines of the society 
it hopes to erect on the ruins of ours. It opposes all 
immediate and sane progress by reform, which would 
actually bring in time all that is valuable in its de- 
mands without the tremendous risk and cost that 
class-war would involve. Wherever the Revolution's 
fundamental theories have been tried, they have 
brought slaughter, destruction, oppression and misery 
and few or none of the promised benefits. 

We have found the Revolutionary propaganda 
appealing in one breath both to idealism and to sav- 
agery, to the highest and the lowest in man. Its 
hatred of Domocracy is open. It plays upon ignorance 
with gigantic promises, vague visions, half-truths, flat 
lies and the revival of disproved and exploded theories. 
It knows and admits that there are now no conditions 
in this country which would justify or bring about 
Revolution, and no possibility that what evils there are 
could provoke revolt within any time inside the range 
of prophecy. So it turns to the creation of fictitious 
discontents, seeks to inflame every element that can 
help to weaken, disorganize and disrupt our society, 
invokes hatred and urges riot. It cultivates chaos. 



278 LABOR AND REVOLT 

We have seen, too, the Revolution working upon 
Labor, in the hope that through industrial power a 
small minority may bring about the cataclysm which 
the great majority opposes and fears; aiming at suc- 
cess through the crippling of our industrial machinery 
and its final overthrow by means of a cessation of 
labor that would in itself cause tmtold horrors, and 
that would be backed by arms and enforced by blood- 
shed. It has wormed a secret way into the unions, 
there to stir up trouble and malcontent, regardless alike 
of justice or of the useless injuries its machinations 
bring upon the workers themselves, and it is already 
practicing revolt in Revolutionary strikes, in which 
Labor, largely an unconscious victim, is paying a 
heavy price to the new exploitation. 

THE STRATEGY OF DESTRUCTION 

This then, either openly stated or clearly seen in 
action, is the strategy of the Revolution: 
Strikes, both as schools of revolution and to destroy 
prosperity, till they so weaken Capital that they 
produce 
Paralysis of industry, a panic, which, with its shut- 
down of mills, stopping of wages and general 
turmoil will create 
Widespread misery, bring to a crisis the existing dis- 
content and unrest, due to the faults of existing 
society and more to the incitements of the Reds, 
and so provide a sufficient backing for 
The Revolution! 



PART IV 
THE SUICIDE OF PROSPERITY 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE GIANT WAVERING 

Organized Labor staggers under Red attack— Uncertainty as to 
degree of success of the "borers" — The geography of Labor 
Radicalism — ^American Federation of Labor on defensive — 
Revolts among unions — Measures taken against radicals — 
Counter-attack by the labor press — Conservative leaders* 
hands forced — The steel and coal strikes — Labor as the first 
line of defense against Bolshevism — Its need of immediate 
support. 

Samuel Gompers, president of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor, in discussing its leadership of the 
great steel strike late in 19 19, said that the Federation 
officers in immediate charge were impressed with "the 
fact that if the strike were discountenanced or dis- 
approved, the organizers of the I. W. W. and the Bol- 
sheviki were on the ground and anxious and willing 
to take charge of the strike." So these officers "had 
no alternative but to help lead the strike in something 
like the American concept of right and peace." 

In that single utterance Mr. Gompers revealed the 
whole situation in Organized Labor in America under 
the attack of the Revolutionaries — ^the danger Or- 
ganized Labor feels, its method of meeting that 
danger, and the result. For the Red policy of "boring 

281 



282 LABOR AND REVOLT 

from within" Organized Labor has produced alarming 
results. 

The policy has been to work on the rank and file of 
the men, letting the leaders alone till their power is 
undermined, but bringing the rank and file to defiance 
of the oflficials whenever possible. This is the more 
easily done because in the unions, as in all organiza- 
tions of the kind, the older and more conservative men 
are likely to spend their evenings at home, making it 
possible to control the union policies through a com- 
paratively few younger and less responsible men. The 
fact that many employers have made a practice of dis- 
charging men when they grow old — and so conserva- 
tive — has helped make this easy. As a result there 
have come the hundreds of strikes which have not 
been authorized by the union authorities and a high 
union oflficial declares that there was not one of the 
kind for which I. W. W. "borers" were not in large 
degree responsible. 

It should never be overlooked that in this boring 
the agitators are very careful to avoid any suggestion 
of revolution, at least until their victims are far ad- 
vanced in discontent. The agitators emphasize and in- 
flame every evil which the workers suffer, spread lies 
about economic conditions to justify unreasonable 
demands and as the basis for false or exaggerated 
charges of oppression and exploitation, undermine the 
confidence of the men in their tried leaders and in 
every way foster resentment and malcontent. All this 
can be done without the worker suspecting that he is 



THE GIANT WAVERING 283 

being made a tool in a revolutionary plot, and as a 
result thousands if not millions of workers are mis- 
led and are playing the game of the Reds without any 
suspicion that they are doing more than fight for their 
just rights. 

MAGGOTS AT THE CORE OF UNIONISM 

How far this boring has gone can only be guessed. 
Secret service men estimate that there are 200,000 to 
300,000 I. W. Ws. out of 900,000 members, inside the 
labor unions of New York State alone, not advertis- 
ing their membership yet, but ready to swing the 
unions to Revolution when the I. W. W. leaders say 
the word. Yet the strength of the I. W. W. is really 
in the 'West. Altogether it is estimated that the 
I. W. W. would, on a test, have control of something 
like a hundred unions. There can be no question that 
the secret Radical campaign has greatly undermined 
the power of the old and tried leaders in almost all 
the unions of the Federation, and that a dangerous ex- 
plosion has been prepared. 

An interesting feature of the revolt against the Fed- 
eration is its geographical distribution. In general 
the farther West one goes, the more Radical does he 
find labor. In New York and New England the Reds 
are almost entirely aliens, and except in the unions 
which are composed mostly of foreigners, such as the 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers (which is almost 
entirely Jewish) they have not won control. In the 



284 LABOR AND REVOLT 

mining regions of the Alleghanies there is a more 
Radical tendency but there again the old line leaders 
have been able to keep their grip. It is in Chicago 
that the first large scale successful revolt is seen. 
There the Central Federated Union, representing all 
the labor bodies of the city, but to a great extent under 
the control of the numerous stockyards employes — 
mostly alien, again — gave up its Federation charter 
and organized a Labor Party in opposition to the Fed- 
eration policy of keeping out of politics. 

From Chicago westward the Radical power in- 
creases rapidly. In Omaha it was only by the .narrow- 
est of margins that the conservatives were able to pre- 
vent the general strike demanded by the Radicals. In 
the Dakotas the Radicals are in the saddle, in Nevada 
and other mining states the I. W. W. agents have fre- 
quently stampeded the miners' unions. On the Coast, 
as in Seattle, Radicalism has won the support of large 
numbers of workers who are entirely American in 
blood. It is on the Coast that the One Big Union 
was started, chiefly to supplement the I. W. W., some- 
what discredited by its record. 

DEFENSIVE FIGHT A LOSING ONE 

The Federation as a body has met this attack so far 
only by defensive measures and by resistance, leaving 
the counter-attack to individual officers. The various 
campaigns to unseat Gompers and swing the control 
of the whole Federation "toward the left'* or toward 



THE GIANT WAVERING 285 

extreme Radicalism, have been handled off the floor of 
the annual conventions. There has been no real test 
of power, but the old leaders have held their places. 
Nor has there been much nominal weakening of the 
old-line policies of the organization, though conces- 
sions have been made in such matters as endorsement 
of the Plumb plan. for giving the railway brotherhoods 
control of the roads, and the grant of charters to 
police unions and other organizations of civil servants. 
Even under the heavy pressure that was being exerted 
in 19 19, however, the convention forbade state and 
central labor bodies to call general strikes, refused to 
endorse a labor political party, and •specified that the 
civil service unions should not strike except on the 
utmost provocation, and never in sympathy with other 
strikes. 

A more direct fight against the Radicals has been 
carried on by Federation officials personally, and by 
the rank and file of Organized Labor. In Pittsburgh, 
for example, the conservatives rallied at the threat of 
a general strike in sympathy with the steel strikers, 
and blocked the scheme. The same thing was done in 
Toronto. In Johnstown, Pa., during the steel strike, 
steel workers themselves forced Radical organizers to 
leave the city. 

More remarkable was the action of the Electro- 
typers Union in New York. There the pressmen struck 
in violation of orders, and under very bright Red 
leadership. The international officers of the union of 
which this was a local revoked the local charter, out- 



286 LABOR AND REVOLT 

lawing the Strike. Presently one of the big magazine 
firms made terms with the strikers, but as a result their 
electrotypers, who are far from revolutionary, struck 
and refused to return to work until the pressmen had 
submitted to the control of the Federation. They took 
the entirely correct tactical position that the striking 
pressmen, being ouside the Federation, were "scabs." 
Their real feeling was one of joy that they had a 
chance to strike a blow against the Reds. 

The outlawing of local unions which have gone Bol- 
shevik and struck contrary to orders has become com- 
mon in several of the big international unions and has 
had a most salutary effect. In two big New York 
strikes the rebels were soon reduced to good behavior, 
and returned to the unions to keep their contracts. 
T. V. O'Connor, the president of the Longshoremen's 
Union, and the winner in such a fight, set forth the 
principles on which it was made: 

The whole structure of collective bargaining rests upon 
the principle of collective responsibility and collective good 
faith. Once these are destroyed nothing remains. Or- 
ganized Labor's enemies from without have ceased to be 
formidable. Organized Labor's enemies from M^ithin, by 
reducing its contracts to scraps of paper, threaten to anni- 
hilate everything it has achieved. 

LABOR PRESS LEADS COUNTER-ATTACK 

Most direct and vigorous of all has been the counter- 
attack from the conservative labor press. Several 



THE GIANT WAVERING 287 

quotations showing this counter-attack have already 
been given — they could be multiplied indefinitely. As 
an example of how well this work is being done it 
may be worth while to give a few excerpts from a 
single monthly, The American Labor World, organ 
of the New York printing trades, in which Radicalism 
has been particularly troublesome. 

When it was announced that Arthur Henderson, the 
British labor-politician, was coming to aid the American 
Labor Party, this magazine published an article headed 
"Henderson Coming to America. It will require all 
his time to explain some of the queries put to him in 
this article." Among the queries were: 

Will Henderson explain the part he and his little clique 
at the head of the Labor Party played in trying to win the 
war for Germany? 

Will he explain his indefatigable attempts to meet with 
the enemy while the war was in progress? 

Will Henderson explain Stockholm, will he explain Zim- 
merwald, will he explain Berne? 

Another article is headed *'0, B. U. be Damned" 
and said: 

We desire to go on record as unalterably opposed to the 
one big union plan. . . . All thinking union men despise 
it. . . . We detest certain isms — exempli gratia: Bolshevism, 
I. W. Wism, radicalism, sovietism, or any other ism that 
reflects upon the one hundred per cent Americanism that 
we have preached and practiced. ... If the one big union 
is to triumph on its merits and if it plans to ultimately 



288 LABOR AND REVOLT 

SMpersede the American Federation of Labor, the millennium 
will have arrived and departed before it triumphs. 

In a full page editorial headed "Let*s Get Together 
Against the Red Flag of Bolshevism," it says : 

The red flag never has been and never will be other than 
the emblem of destruction. Not content with spreading 
suffering, privation, famine, and death through the Euro- 
pean nations the Bolshevist leaders are directing their 
pernicious efforts toward America. In nearly every great 
industrial center in this country to-day the insidious propa- 
ganda of anarchy is being spread through the subtile methods 
employed by the Bolshevist. If they should succeed in 
gaining a hold America would be threatened with a fate 
similar to that of Russia. 

The antidote for Bolshevism is Americanism. No man 
can be an American and a Bolshevist at the same time. 
The red flag and the Star Spangled Banner never can be 
unfurled from the same staff. 

American Labor should heed the red flag, and "stop, look 
and listen." It strikes at the very fundament of Labor*s 
existence. If can mean only idleness and starvation. 

LEADERS HAVE ONLY CHOICE OF EVILS 

In spite of all efforts, however, the radical element 
is constantly forcing the hands of the leaders to 
policies which are against their will and judgment, as 
Gompers practically admitted in the statement with 
which this chapter opens, and as many of the leaders 
will admit privately, with strong language. They see 
the folly of many of the policies to which the Labor 



THE GIANT WAVERING 289 

Giant is tending as clearly as anyone does, but they 
are captains with unruly lieutenants, and they must 
either lead where their followers demand, or give place 
to someone less wise, someone who would inflame 
instead of restraining the rank and file. 

How this works is shown in the case of the bitumin- 
ous coal miners' strike. The United Mine Workers 
of America, which is the official title of the organiza- 
tion, has long been a Radical union. For some years it 
dropped out of the American Federation of Labor and 
was affiliated with the I. W. W., but it returned about 
191,4. Its members are predominantly socialist, too, 
including many aliens, and it offered a fertile field for 
the cultivation of Bolshevist sentiment. 

Its experience with the I. W. W., however, had 
given the more conservative leaders an advantage, and 
its presidents in the last three years have been Frank 
P. White, who resigned to enter the U. S. Fuel Ad- 
ministration, Frank J. Hayes, who broke down under 
the strain of the fight against the extremists, and 
John L. Lewis acting in Hayes' absence. All are of 
the conservative faction. But opposed to them, at 
the head of the Radicals, has been Frank J. Farring- 
ton, and he has supported his campaign for control by 
urging the men to extreme demands for shorter hours 
and higher pay. It finally seemed evident to the con- 
servatives that they were on the verge of defeat, and 
adopted Farrington's programme as a means of hold- 
ing power. 

When the strike became imminent, the same dilemma 



290 LABOR AND REVOLT 

came before the officials of the Federation. If they 
failed to support the strike, regardless of the extrava- 
gance of the demands — which included a thirty-hour 
working week and a 60% increase of pay, making 
a total of 172% increase over the 19 14 scale — they ran 
the risk of seeing one of the most powerful of the 
unions, with some three-quarters of a million mem- 
bers, secede from the Federation. They faced, too, 
the probability that the strike would go on, anyway, 
but under Red instead of conservative leadership. 

The Federation officials chose to support the strike. 

Bolshevism, then, the propaganda of Revolution, is 
having a powerful effect on American Labor, and 
conservative leaders are fighting a battle in which they 
are steadily losing ground. Both inside and outside 
the Federation of Labor the Radicals are gaining 
strength rapidly and the time seems alarmingly near 
when they will be able to throw off the mask, oust the 
present leadership, and take control. 

LEADERS ASK FOR REINFORCEMENTS 

The alternative to a tremendous victory for Revolu- 
tion is to maintain the conservative Labor leadership. 
The leaders have appealed for help both to the public 
and to the employers, appealed particularly against 
the campaign of reaction and the attempt to destroy 
unionism, which was described in the chapter "Giants' 
Pockets Picked." They are anxious to co-operate 
with Capital against the Bolshevik and the I. W. W. 



THE GIANT WAVERING 391 

Mr. Gompers repeats this appeal in an article pub- 
lished in McClure's Magazine: 

It is a question of dealing with such a movement as rep- 
resented by the American trade unions — the American 
Federation of Labor — or deaHng with a body of irresponsi- 
bles and irreconcilables. If we are not on the right track 
then those who represent the wildest orgy of destruction 
with no consideration of the rights of individuals will come 
to the front. . . . The American Labor movement ... is 
rational, natural, orderly and yet insistent that the rights to 
which the workers are entitled shall be fully recognized. . . . 
If society stands like a stone wall against that concept, as 
a united body against that presentation of thought and 
ideas, no one knows with what we may have to contend 
later. 

The Union, the oldest Labor paper in the country, 
speaks for many: 

It is the duty of the employer to co-operate with the 
forces of right in the Labor ranks in combating this evil 
that we call Socialism-^which becomes Bolshevism or Com- 
munism or I. W. Wism when it matures. . . . He owes a 
duty to his men to prevent them from being debauched by 
the contaminating influence of the Socialist in the shops. 

There are a large number of employers who are 
doing their best to respond to this appeal. 

MORE WEAPONS NEEDED THAN KIND WORDS ! 

"The conditions are favorable for employers, if 
they are wise enough, to bring about a labor-capital 



292 LABOR AND REVOLT 

alliance for the preservation of the old landmarks in 
industry," Roger Babson, head of a bureau giving con- 
fidential information to business men, so advised his 
clients, following the 19 19 convention of the A. F. 
of L. The publication of shop-papers, which reply to 
the arguments of the Reds, is becoming common, and 
there are hundreds of them now being printed. A 
definite and fairly well directed counter-propaganda is 
under way. 

But this is not the only support that the conserva- 
tive labor leaders need, if they are to win the fight 
against Bolshevism: and in this fight they constitute 
the first line of defense for America. To hold their 
power and their places they must be able to show re- 
sults — to show that unionism as they have made it is 
getting for the American workers the things which he 
fundamentally demands, to which he has a funda- 
mental right, a fair wage and fair treatment. 

How well the first line of defense can hold will 
depend on the extent to which employers co-operate 
in making certain that the labor leaders do this — that 
is on the extent to which employers grant fair treat- 
ment, pay fair wages, and justify the wages they 
pay by facts and figures that Labor can trust and 
understand. 



CHAPTER XVII 

TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 

The^ change in Detroit — Effects of Red campaign on Labor: 
increase in strikes, growth of arrogance, unwilHngness to 
arbitrate, excessive demands, increased lawlessness, break- 
ing of agreements, refusal to accept responsibility — Political 
threats — Disregard of public rights — The Labor Party — 
Civil service strikes a challenge to Democracy — The impos- 
sibility of divided loyalty. 

Detroit, in the years of its tremendous expansion 
just before the war, was a city of joy for workers and 
of peace with them. Especially after the great Ford 
plant set the pace with its $5-a-day schedule, wages 
were high. Work was always plentiful, labor was in 
demand, and there were almost no labor troubles 
worth consideration. The Radicalism of the northern 
end of the state, the mining region, met with no sym- 
pathy among the prosperous workers of the city. The 
Socialists who foregathered in the German sections 
were of the mild, evolutionary type, and were not dan- 
gerous. 

To-day wages are still high, work is still more plen- 
tiful, but a great change has come over the workers. 
At one time recently there were going on in the city 
forty-two strikes involving more than a hundred men 
each. The Socialist Party in the fall of 1919 was 

293 



294 LABOR AND REVOLT 

compelled to expel the Michigan ''Socialists" for going 
over to Bolshevism. In the unions, according to 
Samuel Gompers, ''the alteration in Detroit conditions 
has been amazing, not to say sinister and threatening." 

"It is a fierce form of Radical I. W. W. teaching 
and preaching akin to the revolutionary Socialism of 
the continent of Europe'* he goes on, "rather than the 
parlor Socialist of the London Fabian society. It is a 
Socialism born of class division and class antagonism 
and the hatred of all superiority, either mental, moral 
or physical." 

Here, in miniature, epitomized in a single city, are 
the results of the Red propaganda. With variations, 
similar conditions are to be found throughout the 
country: unrest, labor troubles, "fierce Radicalism." 
It is impossible to tell just how much of this is directly 
due to the Radical campaign, how much is accounted 
for by the Reds' exploiting of spontaneous discontent, 
and how much would have arisen without their aid, 
but a study of the labor troubles that have come since 
the signing of the armistice will at least give some 
measure of the success the revolutionary programme 
is having. 

STRIKE THERMOMETER SHOWS FEVER HEAT 

Most noticeable has been the increase in strikes. 
There are no exact statistics kept on these, even by the 
U. S. Government, and the best current estimate is that 
furnished by one of the big, confidential information 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 295 

agencies of big business. According to this agency 
the number of strikes which were in effect on any one 
day jumped from an average of 74 for the last two 
weeks in March, 19 19, the date when demobihzation 
and the unemployment it caused were practically over, 
to 364 in the last two weeks in July — an increase of 
500% in four months. This, too, came at a time 
when there was almost no unemployment, and when 
wages were rising faster than the cost of living. 

SYMPTOMS OF SERIOUS NERVOUS DISORDER 

This great increase in labor troubles, one of the 
most serious the country has ever seen, was marked by 
a new attitude on the part of Labor, and a new spirit ; 
an arrogance, a feeling of power to enforce almost any 
demand it might choose to make, and a tendency to 
make demands that were often unreasonable, and were 
sometimes so startling as to be explained only on the 
theory that the unions were following the I. W. W. 
advice and seeking chiefly to "cripple capitalism." 

One of the features of this spirit was a marked de- 
crease in the willingness of the workers to arbitrate, 
or, if arbitration were acceptable on some points, to 
make flat conditions on others. This was most not- 
able in the case of the soft-coal miners, who submitted 
a flat demand respecting both hours and wages, and 
left their officials no choice for negotiation or any 
modification of these. A similar attitude was seen in 
the strike of the pressmen in New York, where they 



296 LABOR AND REVOLT 

offered to arbitrate wages, but refused to discuss their 
demands for shorter hours. The information agency 
referred to reported 30 cases of arbitration of strikes 
during the last quarter of 191 8, 18 during the first 
quarter of 19 19, 8 in the second quarter, and only 4 
in the third, in spite of the five-fold increase in the 
number of strikes — a decrease of nearly 97% in 
willingness to accept a judicial verdict. 

About 60% of all these strikes involved de- 
mands for wage increases. It has been shown that, 
according to the best statistics, the average rise in 
wages has more than met the increased cost of living, 
the excess margin for wages being from 10 to 
nearly 100%. In spite of this demands for greatly 
inflated pay continued unabated. In railways, steel 
mills, and mines, the workers asked and threatened 
to enforce increases out of proportion to their pre- 
vious standard of living. 

The demand for * 'shorter and shorter hours," in the 
language of the Revolutionary propaganda, was an- 
other feature of the agitation. This demand should, 
under normal conditions, appear in 20 to 25% of 
the strikes, but after the great strike wave started 
it was involved in 34%. A part of these were to 
enforce the eight-hour day, but nearly half were for 
a 44- and many for a 40-hour week, while the miners 
demanded a week of 30 hours. 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 297 

OFFICIALS NO LONGER LEAD BUT ARE DRIVEN 

It has not been the leaders of Labor who have been 
urging these demands. Throughout the country, as 
has been shown, the leaders have been constantly 
spurred by demands from the rank and file — the men 
among whom the Red agitators are working — for 
wages and conditions that the leaders did not feel jus- 
tified in asking, and still less in attempting to enforce. 
In some cases, as in the mine strike, the leaders yielded 
to the drive from the rear, and led the fights with what 
grace they could. In others they attempted to forbid 
the strike, and were over-ridden. 

Another feature of the strike wave, and a symptom 
that has shown itself in many other ways, has been an 
increasing tendency on the part of Labor to defy the 
laws, to break agreements, and to refuse to accept re- 
sponsibility — all in accord with the Red teachings. 
One of the most frequently exhibited forms of this 
tendency has been in the rejection of arbitration 
awards, after the arbitration had been accepted. The 
longshoremen's strike in New York was a noticeable 
example of this, and the miners refused tO' abide by the 
award of the Federal Fuel Commission as to wages. 

HEADS LABOR WINS; TAILS EVERYONE LOSES 

More important, because it involves as fundamental 
a principle and reaches through all sections of Organ- 
ized Labor, has been the refusal to accept responsibility 
for the great and growing power which the unions are 



C98 LABOR AND REVOLT 

exercising, and the resentment with which the demand 
for such responsibiHty has been met. It has appeared 
in many forms. In the Plumb plan for the operation 
of the railroads by the unions there was a provision 
that the workers should get a proportion of any profits 
their management might bring, but none for their 
sharing any losses which might follow mismanage- 
ment; the public was expected to pay those. Demands 
for a modification of the plan in this regard were 
rejected. 

The movement for making the unions responsible 
for their exercise of the great power to inflict indus- 
trial injury on their employers or on the public has 
centered in the proposal for the incorporation of labor 
bodies. At present they are not incorporated, their 
funds are immune to court action — the railway broth- 
erhoods boasted that they could raise $10,000,000 to 
push through the Plumb plan — and there is almost no 
recourse for any damage they may do, however wan- 
ton or lawless. They are specifically exempted by the 
Clayton Act from any prosecution under the Sherman 
Anti-Trust Law. They are the one great power in 
America that is almost entirely free from legal control. 

Yet not a single labor leader of prominence has been 
found to urge that such control would be justified in 
any way, and even Samuel Gompers, usually quick to 
advocate the rights of society at large, has violently 
opposed it ; this at the very time that Labor is seeking 
and getting power that approaches domination over 
the industries and in the politics of the nation. 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 299 

Moreover, the suggestion that without incorporation 
the unions should be brought within reach of the law 
in the matter of strikes vitally affecting the public 
welfare, such as those tying up mines or transporta- 
tion, has been bitterly opposed by the highest labor 
leaders, even of the conservative type. Not only that : 
Timothy Shea, president of the Brotherhood of Loco- 
motive Firemen and Enginemen, warned Congress that 
the members of that union would disobey such a law, 
and Samuel Gompers endorsed his stand. William H. 
Johnston, president of the International Association 
of Machinists, the second largest union in the Federa- 
tion of Labor, went farther, if possible, and declared 
that "direct action,'^ at least to the extent of a general 
strike by his union, and probably by all the other 112 
unions in the Federation, would be called if such a law 
were passed. 

HOW MALCONTENTS PULL THE STRINGS 

The extent to which the Revolutionary campaign 
has induced this attitude may be seen by a glance at 
the conditions in Australia, where under almost com- 
plete labor control of the government, anti-strike legis- 
lation is on the statute books, and is constantly disre- 
garded by the unions. In his book on "Australian 
Social Development," Dr. Clarence H. Northcott says : 

The paradox, therefore, presents itself that strikes are 
more numerous but less violent (than before the labor era). 
The paradox is intensified by the fact that the states which 



300 LABOR AND REVOLT 

have made the greatest provision for the settlement of 
industrial disputes are those which have the most strikes. 
These states have also penal provisions against strikes. The 
arbitration courts may punish a union which strikes by 
canceling its registration, by canceling the award under 
which it is working, or by canceling or suspending preference 
(in employment) to members of the union. A monetary 
fine up to a maximum of £1000 may be imposed upon an 
industrial union, and each individual is subj ected to a penalty 
with a maximum of £50. Individuals are fined regularly 
and systematically for taking part in strikes, and the maxi- 
mum penalties have been imposed alike on organizations 
and on individuals. Strikes are, therefore, at the best, an 
ingrained bad habit; at the worst, instances of lawlessness 
strangely out of place in an advanced democracy. 

He discusses the conviction of the workers that they 
have a right to strike, declares that this does not jus- 
tify the great frequency of walkouts, and resumes: 

But another factor enters in to condition the frequency 
of disputes. Moderate trade-unionists calculate that up to 
40% of the members of most unions are men holding ex- 
treme views on the present social system. They are desirous 
of overthrowing it as speedily as possible, and will tolerate 
nothing that will support or conserve Capitalism. Hence 
the most trivial matters are seized on as excuses for the 
dislocation of industry. 

So here we have, in a labor commonwealth, the 
unions themselves violating their own laws under the 
influence of the Reds. And in America we have Labor 
leaders threatening the breaking of a law even before 
it is passed, and threatening also the use of the strike 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 301 

as a political weapon — a distinctly Red means of argu- 
ment — against the legally expressed will of the nation. 
The use of the political strike has been discussed un- 
der the chapter dealing with the Reds' proposed means 
of Revolution. Its appearance as a weapon employed 
by Organized Labor has followed hard upon the Reds' 
advocacy. Examples have been set in Europe. In this 
country so far there have been threats only. 

THREATS AGAINST MAJORITY RULE 

The most open of these was that made by the Penn- 
sylvania Federation of Labor, under the leadership of 
James H. Maurer, a Radical, of a general strike to 
force a special session of the legislature. The Federa- 
tion accused public officials of "executive autocracy 
and judicial anarchy" in their dealings with steel strike 
agitators, and wanted the legislature called to impeach 
and remove them. It was voted to call a general strike 
in case the Governor refused to obey. It was a dis- 
tinct bid for political dictatorship through unionized 
labor minorities. It should be noted that such action 
is contrary to the by-laws of the American Federation 
of Labor, which authorizes the withdrawal of the 
charter of any central labor body that calls such a 
strike. 

The threat of a general railway strike to force the 
adoption of the Plumb plan was also in line with 
Revolutionary tactics, though the plan itself could not 
be called revolutionary. Its proper classification is 



302 LABOR AND REVOLT 

under the heading of "Guild SociaUsm," which is now 
a Radical fad in England, and which provides for 
operation of industries by the workers. The Plumb 
plan, however, was not Socialism, since it contem- 
plated payment to the security holders of the roads, 
instead of seizure, which is the first measure of the 
Socialist economic programme. 

PUBLIC^S RIGHTS AND WELFARE IGNORED 

Another attitude which Labor has taken recently 
and which has a distinctly Red tinge is an increasing 
disregard of the rights and comfort of the public. 
The refusal to recognize these and indifference to the 
suffering which would be inflicted characterized the 
biggest of the strikes following the war; steel, coal, 
longshoremen and the railway threats. It is shown, 
too, in another way; Commissioner Lynch, of the 
New York State Industrial Commission, and a former 
Labor leader, in speaking on the proposition of having 
boards of conciliation composed of representatives of 
employers, employes and the public, declared: 

I think that a committee of employers and employes should 
work out this problem. I have not much faith in this 
question of the representatives of the public, and I think 
many organizations of wage earners are going to look 
askance on this representation of the public, because they 
found in so many instances that after all it was a larger 
representation of the other side of the controversy. 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 303 

ATTEMPT TO FORM A LABOR PARTY 

Another and distinctly Revolutionary element in the 
United States is found in the labor unions which, be- 
cause of Radicalism, have refused to join the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor, or have seceded from it. 
Largest of these is the Amalgamated Association of 
Garment Workers, under the leadership of Sidney 
Hillman, a Socialist. The penetration of Radicalism 
into the Federation bodies, and the revolt from it of 
whole sections of the country, have already been dis- 
cussed. Much of this revolt has centered in the new 
Labor Party, and its platform, while not violently 
Revolutionary, has nevertheless enough tinge of Red 
doctrines to be of deep interest. The preamble of the 
party in New York uses much of the Red jargon: 

We must insure that there is to be built up ^ social order 
based not on fighting but on fraternity, not on competitive 
struggle for the means of bare life but on deliberately- 
planned co-operation in production and distribution by and 
for all who participate with hand or brain; not on an in- 
equality of riches but on a systematic approach toward a 
healthy equality of material circumstances for every person 
born into the world. There should be no subject nations, 
subject races, subject colonies, subject classes or subject sex. 

The platform of the Chicago Labor Party, which 
polled 50,000 votes in its first campaign, makes the fol- 
lowing demands: 

1. Unqualified right of Labor to organize. 

2. Democratic control of industry for the common good 
of those who work with hand or brain, and the elimination 



304 LABOR AND REVOLT 

of autocratic domination either by selfish private interests 
or bureaiflcratic government. 

3. A 44-hour week, and a minimum wage assuring the 
worker and his family "health, comfort, a competence for 
old age, ample recreation and the opportunity for good 
citizenship." 

4. Abolition of unemployment through furnishing of work 
by the government. 

5. Complete sex equality. 

6. Reduction of the cost of living. 

7. Democratization of education by the participation in 
control of Organized Labor and organized teachers. 

8. Government life insurance. 

9. Government seizure of all inheritances above $100,000, 
a direct capital tax on all who have gained by the war, 
a stiffening of the graduated income tax, profits from gov- 
ernment owned utilities to reduce taxation, a new system 
of land taxation to stimulate progress. 

10. Public ownership and operation of railways, steam^ 
ships, stockyards, grain elevators, terminal markets, 
telegraphs, telephones, and all public utilities; the national- 
ization of all basic natural resources such as mines, water 
power, etc., and the "repatriation" of large holdings. 

11. Complete freedom of speech and movement and the 
liberation of all prisoners convicted of championing Labor 
and its rights. 

12. Representation of Labor, in proportion to its strength, 
in the government in all ways. 

13. Representation of Labor in the control of the army, 
navy, at the peace conference, etc. 

14. An international league of workers to "enforce the 
destruction of militarism, autocracy and economic imperial- 
ism through the world, and to bring about world-wide 
disarmament and open diplomacy, to the end that there shall 
be no more kings and no more wars." 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 305 

CLASS-LOYALTY UNDERMINES PATRIOTISM 

Perhaps the most anti-American feature of the 1919 
strike wave was the number of walkouts by unions of 
civil servants, which culminated in the Boston police 
affair, with its sequence of crime and disorder. With 
them went a great movement for the organization of 
unions of the police, firemen, teachers and other civil 
servants. 

This, as we have seen, has been one of the important 
parts of the Radical programme, it is demanded even 
in the mild Socialist Party platform, and the possi- 
bility of calling from their posts these servants of the 
public, of substituting for their loyalty to the people a 
loyalty to unionism, or to the labor class, would be- 
come a most powerful weapon in the hands of the Red 
leaders, should they get the control of Labor which 
they are seeking. It would be the final evil of the 
general strike, and would paralyze at the start the first 
defense against social disorder — the police. The evils 
of such a strike were only too fully demonstrated in 
Boston, where theft, riot, assault, and even murder 
were rampant when the city was left without its usual 
guardians. 

In many ways there was much excuse, if not justi- 
fication, for the civil servants. It seems customary for 
governments to fix high rates of pay when establishing 
their service but to change them exceedingly tardily 
to meet new conditions. In the great increase in the 
cost of living during the war the government employes 



3o6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

suffered severely, and there was a most callous disre- 
gard of their needs by legislative bodies of all kinds. 
One result was a serious difficulty in recruiting them, 
and a heavy resignation which lowered the standard of 
service. 

Another result was the organization of unions and 
strikes. There could be no question of the justice of 
the demands for higher pay. The question was 
whether there could be any justification for endanger- 
ing public peace and safety and violating the oaths 
under which the public servants took office. On this 
the country — except the Reds who see no duty owed 
to the public — gave the only possible answer when its 
attention was focused by the Boston strike. There 
the issue was not wages, but organization and affilia- 
tion with the American Federation of Labor in prepa- 
ration for wage demands. 

LEADERS IN BOTH PARTIES SPEAK OUT 

President Wilson denounced that strike as "a crime 
against civilization," and telegraphed the Boston police 
commissioner: 

I am as desirous as you are of dealing with the police force 
in the most just and generous way, but I think that any 
association of the police force of the Capital City, or of 
any other great city, whose object is to bring pressure 
upon the public or the community such as will endanger 
the public peace or embarrass the maintenance of order, 
should in no case be countenanced or permitted. 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 307 

Elihu Root summed up the Boston issue: 

Now what does the police strike in Boston mean? It 
means that the men who have been employed and taken 
their oaths to maintain order and suppress crime, as the 
servants of all the people, are refusing to perform that 
solemn duty, unless they are permitted to ally themselves, 
affiliate themselves, become members of a great organization 
which contains, perhaps, three per cent of the people. Now, 
if that is done, that is the end, except for a revolution. 
Government cannot be maintained unless it is empowered 
to use force. 

The American Federation of Labor, though long 
importuned to accept police and other civil service 
unions, held out against the pressure till its 19 19 con- 
vention. Its officers recognized the Revolutionary 
character of the plan, and the danger that it might per- 
mit the use of the civil servants to cripple the govern- 
ment against Revolution. But in 19 19 the pressure 
became too strong, and charters were granted under 
conditions which, it was hoped, would remove the 
danger. 

**When the policemen accept charters from the 
American Federation of Labor," President Gompers 
explained, "it is with the distinct understanding that 
strike action will not be resorted to, and no obliga- 
tion is assumed which in any way conflicts with their 
oath of office." Yet the Federation supported the 
Boston strikers. 



3o8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ENLISTING FIRE TO AID A STRIKE 

Another instance of a strike of civil servants, 
though it attracted less attention because obscured in 
a larger issue, was that of the firemen in Winnipeg. 
In the general strike there the strike committee or- 
dered the poHce to remain at their posts, and they did 
so until discharged by the city for refusing to sign 
agreements not to desert their duty. But the firemen 
were called out and to increase the danger of fire 
hazard the strike committee ordered the workers in 
the city waterworks, who also stayed on under strike 
instructions, to reduce the water pressure. It was im- 
possible to get 20 pounds pressure at the hydrants — 
not a quarter enough for effective work against fires. 

Prompt action by the citizens prevented a catas- 
trophe. A volunteer fire department was organized, 
mostly from returned soldiers, and it took over the fire 
houses barely in time. Volunteer engineers were also 
sent to the waterworks, and they ousted the semi- 
strikers, and restored the water pressure to normal. 
Within 48 hours there occurred one of the worst fires 
in the history of the city, and one which, if there had 
been no organized force to fight it, would almost cer- 
tainly have destroyed a quarter of the place. The 
strikers' hopes in the situation were shown by the fact 
that the number of legitimate fire-alarms more than 
doubled in the first 24 hours after the volunteers went 
on duty, and that there were nearly 500 false alarms, 
intended to disorganize the system. 



TYING THE HANDS OF INDUSTRY 309 

Such have been the more prominent aspects of 
American Labor activity in which the pressure of the 
Red agitation appears. 

Certainly they do not show that American Labor 
has become Revolutionary. 

But as certainly they show that the Revolutionary 
poison is at work among the unions, and is producing 
results. Along a dozen lines Labor is moving in the 
way that the Revolution would have it, it is showing a 
degeneracy in morale and an overweening assertive- 
ness that fit in well with the Reds' plans. Even its 
best and wisest leaders are being driven with the rest. 

And there are spots where the Revolution has 
broken through into open and dangerous sores. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 

The Red drive to lower production — Some simple economic 
laws defined — The myth of "over-production" — Labor's re- 
duction of prosperity by strikes, by excessive wage increases, 
by too short hours, by slacking — The "just-so-much-work- 
to-be-done" fallacy — The cost of slacking since the war — 
Who foots the bill — The "vicious circle" of increasing costs 
— ^AU progress scotched — The social and economic failure 
of Australian labor. 

The Revolution, as has been shown, has been preach- 
ing to Labor the world over certain economic doc- 
trines : that Labor does not get more than a small part 
of its share of what it produces, that it is entitled to 
the whole product, that it owes no duty to employers 
or to society, that the "exploiters" enjoy a vast stolen 
income at the workers' expense, that far less work 
than is done would be more than enough if the product 
were fairly distributed, and that there is practically 
no limit to what Labor might enjoy if it could enforce 
such a fair distribution. With this has gone the Revo- 
lutionary programme of "crippling Capitalism" by 
economic action: strikes, sabotage, slowing down of 
production, and large wage and time demands. 

Each of these teachings, it will be noted, if followed 
to its logical conclusion, will lead the worker to pro- 

310 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 311 

duce less. If he is earning more than he gets, he can 
fairly work less; if he owes no duty to anyone, he 
can loaf as he pleases; if others are fattening on his 
work, surely he will do less; if he wants to strike at 
his enemies, again he will do less work. Thus the 
whole tendency of the economic teachings of the Red 
campaign is to diminish production. 

Since the division of the product of industry re- 
mains nearly constant, whether it is fair or not, this 
proposition is self-evident: that the amount that goes 
to the workers depends absolutely on the amount they 
produce. Certainly there can be no division of noth- 
ing ; no one can divide — or even steal — what does not 
exist, and no Revolutionary or Utopian state of society 
can provide either food, clothing, shelter, or any other 
economic good thing that has not been produced by 
labor. 

There is no possible exception to this law. There 
is only one factor that may modify its effect for a 
time. This factor is that if it is possible to draw upon 
the nation^s reserve of accumulated wealth, the full 
effect of a shortage of production will not be felt till 
that reserve is exhausted. The present bearings of 
this factor will be considered in the next chapter. This 
one is confined to the immediate relation of Labor and 
of Revolution to production under the present indus- 
trial system. 



312 LABOR AND REVOLT 

HOW LAZINESS CHECKS PROSPERITY 

Since there can be no outgo without an equal in- 
come, whether in products, wages in payment for 
products, or any other, thing, there are certain rules 
which apply unavoidably to the relations between Cap- 
ital, Labor and production. These rules are simply 
true; they may or may not be unjust, and they are 
certainly highly displeasing to many individuals, but 
no denunciation or evasion will change them or their 
effect. They are so simple that it would be needless 
to state them if they were not being constantly over- 
looked or defied in the flood of Revolutionary — and 
some of the Labor — discussions. 

The first of these rules is that the less there is 
produced, the less there will be to distribute. 
The second is that the only economic justifica- 
tion of higher wages is a higher production unless 
our whole system of distribution is changed, and 
as will be shown, no possible change would mod- 
ify this rule more than a very little. The third is that 
any curtailment of production must inevitably bring a 
curtailment of the amount that can be distributed — 
that is, it destroys prosperity. Special conditions af- 
fecting particular groups of people may enable them 
to escape direct penalties for the violation of these 
laws by forcing the burden on other parts of society, 
but society, as a whole, has to pay for every breach of 
every one of them. 

Professor Will ford Isbell King, in his book on "The 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 313 

Wealth and Income of the People of the United 
States," points this out forcibly: 

The grim fact remains that the quantity of goods turned 
out absolutely limits the income of Labor, and that no reform 
will bring universal prosperity which is not based funda- 
mentally on increasing the national income. After all, the 
classical economists were right in emphasizing the side of 
production in contradistinction to that of distribution. Na- 
ture refuses to give up her bounty except in return for 
efforts expended. Demands for higher wages have never 
yet unlocked her store-houses. 

Dr. King's work shows, as was pointed out in an 
earlier chapter, that whatever the exploitation by Cap- 
ital has been, conditions in America have given Labor 
a growing proportion of our tremendously increased 
production. So there can be no question that Labor 
will have a very definite share in whatever prosperity, 
or lack of prosperity, our industrial organization may 
produce. 

''over-production^' a dishonest myth 

There is no real danger of over-production, In spite 
of the frequent use of that term as a cover and excuse 
for economic mis judgments and wrongs. The whole 
world is still poor, and poorer to-day as a result of the 
staggering losses of the war. In 19 14, the latest year 
for which figures are available, the per capita value of 
economic goods in the United States was only $13 18. 11. 
The average consumption of goods had only reached 



314 LABOR AND REVOLT 

$359 in 19 lo. The per capita value of active capital 
in 1910 was only $521. For England, the richest 
country in the world, the total per capita wealth was 
estimated before the war at no more than $1565. 

These figures show how little fear there need be of 
producing more than the world needs, if only the dis- 
tribution of earnings be such that those who need can 
buy. Moreover, as mankind advances in civilization, 
wants increase at least as rapidly as the means of satis- 
fying them ; elaborations and refinements are more and 
more demanded, and quality is far more expensive than 
quantity as a factor in production. 

It may be possible that there is now some place 
where all the primal needs have been met, though that 
is not likely, and for most of mankind there is still a 
big margin of actual want to be supplied. But even 
after all want is wiped out there will remain to be met 
the great inexhaustible demands for education, refine- 
ment, and a little luxury. 

One of the Labor leaders recently declared that 
every worker was entitled to a "flivver," and was 
widely derided for the extravagance of the idea. But 
he was entirely right — every worker is entitled not 
only to a car, but to a piano and silk underwear if he 
wants them, provided only that the worker gives back 
a product of equal value, that is, that he earn them and 
does not try to conjure them out of nothing, like rab- 
bits from a magician's hat. Certainly there will always 
be room for more production till he gets them, and 
many things besides. 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 31S 

There Is one more deduction to be made from the 
economic law that there can be no distribution of 
nothing ; every destruction or waste of products means 
just so much taken from the general prosperity. Every 
machine that is wrecked, every building that is de^ 
stroyed, every pound of materials that is ruined, every 
ounce of food that is allowed to spoil, must be paid 
for by the whole community. However much the in- 
dividual owner may suffer from the loss, the great 
economic fact is that there is so much less wealth to 
be shared, to be used or made productive. 

It is with these simple and fundamental facts in 
mind that the effect upon our present welfare of the 
agitation which the Revolution is conducting among 
the workers must be studied. It is obvious that the 
effect will be shown in decreased production, that the 
cost of the Red agitation will be found in the losses 
due to industrial unrest. Not all of this unrest, of 
course, can be charged to the Reds, and the many com- 
plicated factors involved make it impossible to esti- 
mate their proportion. But the Reds' share is large, 
they are doing all they can to increase it, and they 
would gladly claim more than their just due. 

HOW STRIKE LOSSES PILE UP 

First and most important of the losses caused by 
unrest are those from strikes. The Department of 
Labor estimates strike losses between January i and 
October i, 19 19, at $100,000,000. This is probably 



3i6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

grossly below the fact, but there are no accurate sta- 
tistics available. There are certain indications, how- 
ever, and the best of them is found in the loss in coal 
production. In the briefer period between April 21 
and August 24, 19 19, the loss in bituminous coal pro- 
duction due to strikes was 92,000,000 tons, and that in 
anthracite coal 39,761,000 tons, a total of 131,761,000 
tons. If this loss be figured at only a dollar a ton — 
who does not wish it could? — the Department's total 
estimate has already been exceeded by one-third, and 
that in a single industry. During most of this period 
there were something like 250 strikes going on every 
day. Whatever the exact figures of the loss were, they 
were staggering. 

But J:his is merely the loss in production — ^not the 
whole strike loss. The loss in wages, under the aver- 
'age distribution now prevailing, was over 46 per cent 
of this total. This is a loss that is made up some- 
where — since the workers affected have to live — either 
in higher wages following the strike, and consequent 
higher prices, in a reduction of union savings funds, 
or in actual suffering. The fact must be constantly 
borne in mind that however any loss may be shifted, 
it remains a loss — it cannot be made good out of 
♦nothing. 

A third form of loss due to strikes is that of mate- 
rials. Millions of dollars worth of precious food 
rotted on New York wharves during the longshore- 
men's strike. Other millions of dollars worth of steel 
was ruined in the furnaces when the workers quit. In 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 317 

almost every strike there are such losses — often there 
is actual destruction. 

Finally every strike causes injury to other indus- 
tries. The finished products of one industry are often 
the raw materials of others, and when these products 
are cut off the secondary industry must shut down. 
Coal is notably such a product: there is hardly an in- 
dustry that can move without it. Those 131,761,000 
missing tons of coal — not counting the vast loss of 
production in the big strike in the fall of 19 19 — each 
marked a lowering of production, a decrease in the 
amount to be shared, a lessening of wages paid, an 
increase in prices. Lack of steel products caused the 
laying off of men in a hundred industries. Even a 
little flurry of a railroad strike in California, hardly 
noticed in the East, shut down or put on part time 
something like 400 factories. Strike costs roll up like 
a snowball ! 

The effect on prices of the wage increases granted 
to Labor is too obvious to need much discussion. Some 
labor leaders have denied that such increased wages 
had any effect on prices, but no one has attempted to 
explain from what other source than the public's 
pockets the money could be drawn, in view of the 
power of the manufacturer to pass along all costs to 
the consumer. And, as has been shown, those wage 
increases, according to the best information available, 
have outrun the rising cost of living. 



3i8 LABOR AND REVOLT 

THE COST OF SHORTER HOURS 

The shortening of the hours of labor is a thing that 
has had a more powerful influence than is generally 
recognized. It has been widely argued that production 
is increased by shorter hours and there is much evidence 
to indicate that shorter hours can, or should, increase 
the output in many industries. The whole question of 
the amount turned out by any group of workers is so 
complicated with the details of attitude toward work, 
morale and so forth, that no figures yet compiled can 
be considered as settling the debate. It may appear, 
when the evidence is all in, that eight hours* work pro- 
duces more than either a longer or a shorter day. 
Available figures, however, do prove conclusively that 
recent shortening of hours has almost invariably meant 
lower production. 

This is in line with common sense. Much of our 
production to-day is from workers who are so literally 
geared to machinery that they are almost a part of it. 
Their speed must be its speed, and machinery cannot 
safely be hurried beyond a certain point. After that 
point is reached, no possible increase in the efficiency 
of the worker can increase its production. With many 
machines comparatively little strain is put on the at- 
tending worker even at full speed. It is inevitable that 
in any industry that depends on such machines the 
cutting off of an hour from the working time — after 
the hours have been reduced to the point where there 
is no excessive fatigue — reduces the product by just 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 319 

so much. So the much-abused employer has shown 
himself willing to sacrifice profits for the sake of his 
workers' welfare in many cases. 

A careful survey of the effect of shorter hours has 
been made by the National Industrial Conference 
Board, of Boston. This survey covered the years 
1918-1919 for some 800 firms in the metal, boot and 
shoe, cotton, wool and silk, trades. A reduction of 
hours was found in about 65 per cent of the firms can- 
vassed, and they employed altogether a little more than 
300,000 workers. 

This survey showed that only 3.2 per cent of the 
firms which had shortened hours had increased pro- 
duction, that 19.9 per cent had maintained it, and that 
76.9 per cent had lost. Of the workers involved, 4.6 
per cent had increased production, 14.4 per cent had 
kept even and 81 per cent had lost. So it is evident 
that these 300,000 workers were actually contributing 
a smaller amount to society — were producing less, and 
were entitled to a smaller return — after the shortening 
of the hours. 

In fact, the workers have received less, for the eco- 
nomic laws have been self-enforcing. The decrease in 
production has sent prices upward, and the worker's 
buying power — the real measure of his share in pros- 
perity — has decreased. Professor King points this 
out: 

During the last fifteen years the rising money wages have 
served to hide from the working man the fact that the 
shortening of his hours of labor was resulting in a decrease 



320 LABOR AND REVOLT 

in the power of his daily wages to buy the commodities 
desired. 

He estimates a decline in buying power of wages 
between 1896 and 19 12, of 8% for men and 10% for 
women. This loss, of course, has been shared by all 
the rest of the nation, as well as by Labor. 

In spite of these facts, perhaps in ignorance of them, 
34% of the strikes of which data are available 
in the 19 19 strike wave were based on demands for 
shorter hours. Most of them were won and thus 
another heavy cost was loaded on the shoulders of 
Labor, as well as of society as a whole. There are 
many good reasons outside the economic field for the 
shortening of hours, but unless production is kept up 
society has to pay for them, and is paying for them, 
in a loss of prosperity. 



THE COST OF UNDER-WORK 

It would not be difficult to keep up production, in 
fact to increase it more than enough to offset both 
higher wages and shorter hours. The output of Amer- 
ican workers to-day is far, very far, below what it 
might be. It would require no change in the industrial 
machinery, no over-strain on the workers, no evil of 
any kind, to bring an increase in production — in pros- 
perity — of something like fifty per cent. 

The foremost reason for this is the deliberate re- 
striction of production by Labor, the greatest eco- 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 3:11 

nomic sin with which Labor can fairly be charged. 
Not all the blame for this, however, lies at Labor's 
door, for as was shown in an earlier chapter, the un- 
fairness of many employers forced Labor to some 
such policy in self-defense. Labor, however, can be 
justly blamed for restricting production where no need 
of defense existed, and for teaching restriction as a 
thing desirable in itself. 

This teaching has been based on a fundamental eco- 
nomic error, the belief that there is "just so much work 
to be done." The complications of our industrial sys- 
tem, which make it impossible for most workers to 
see the use to which their product is put, or to trace 
the involved routes by which benefit from it returns to 
them, have made it hard to remove this error. Put 
one of these workers in his own shop, or on his own 
farm, and he sees instantly that there is a direct return 
for all work done, and that there is no limit to the 
amount of work that may be done profitably. But put 
him at a lathe or her at a loom, and the product seems 
to be merely a contribution to an ocean-like infinitude 
of materials, without cause or effect. It is easy, then, 
for such a worker to believe that the demand for pro- 
duction is fixed by some invisible power, and that 
when the demand is met there will be no more work. 
Often he cannot see that the increased wages he will 
get for increasing his product will permit him to draw 
more out of the great reservoir, and so make room for 
more production, and more wages, for some other 
worker. 



322 LABOR AND REVOLT 

PAYING HIGH FOR SELF-SACRIFICE 

This "just-so-much-work-to-be-done" fallacy has 
played a big part in keeping all the world poorer. It 
has caused a public opinion among the workers which 
has shackled production at every turn. Many workers 
have believed, and have made their fellows act on their 
belief, that when a man earned more than was abso- 
lutely needful for himself, he was keeping some other 
man from work. They have believed that if a man 
worked overtime, or worked more rapidly than others, 
he was "hogging" the share that should go to men who 
were out of work. They have believed that the short- 
ening of hours would result in providing work for the 
unemployed. As a result in American industry in 
general, the pace of work is set for the slowest and 
least competent man who can hold his place at all, and 
production is limited to the amount necessary to pay 
him living wages. 

Too much cannot be said for the spirit of the 
speedier men who have sacrificed themselves in this 
slowing down and consequent loss of earnings. Wrong 
headed and foolish the sacrifice may have been, but it 
was a glorious, often an heroic, folly. For a man whose 
earnings are barely at the subsistence line and whose 
powers are fully equal to pushing them far above it and 
to providing comfort and luxury — for such a man to 
limit his earnings in the belief that by so doing he is 
making it possible for less fortunate men to live at all, 
is sacrifice and public spirit beyond praise. It is noth- 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 323 

ing less than tragedy that this very sacrifice should not 
only have impoverished the man who made it, but in- 
jured those he was seeking to help, who would have 
been called to labor in some far-off convolution of the 
great industrial mechanism to supply the demands his 
increased earnings would have caused. 

And what shall be said of the employers — ^thousands 
of them — whose treatment of their workers was such 
as to make them believe that by some hook or crook 
the employer would find means to filch from them 
whatever they might produce beyond enough to leave 
them bare provision against the most grinding need? 

CAMOUFLAGE FOR STRIKE LOSSES 

This theory that there is just so much work to be 
done is used, too, by labor agitators to hide the losses 
due to strikes. 

"Don't you worry about the wages you aren't get- 
ting," these agitators have told thousands of audiences 
of strikers. "Youll get it all back. The work has 
all got to be done, hasn't it? What's the difference 
whether you get the money now or next month? If 
we win you'll get more pay for doing the same work, 
anyhow." 

Of course the more intelligent labor leaders have 
long known that this plea was a fallacy, and that the 
more a man earns the better for everyone. The best 
of them have been trying to make the rank and file 
see this, and others had a convincing lesson in the dem- 



324 LABOR AND REVOLT 

onstration of the relation between production and 
spending capacity which the war offered. The leaders, 
however, have had little success in rooting out the evil, 
compared to the total number of workers affected, 
though the best of the unions are now almost free 
from it It is, of course, carefully cultivated by the 
Reds. 



REDS ENCOURAGE INTENSIVE SLACKING 

This old sin of Labor's, which has been the heaviest 
drag upon American prosperity, has been vastly in- 
creased since the war and the intensive Red agitation. 
This added slacking has been so important that its 
effect on prices has probably been as powerful as the 
increase in wages. Its effect in retarding prosperity 
has been even greater. It is so extensive that it gives 
the color of a sardonic joke to Labor's demand for 
collective bargaining. The worker, in such a bargain 
nowadays, knows what he is getting. The employer 
cannot tell within a wide margin how much labor he 
will receive for the money he bargains to pay. 

The new intensive slacking is largely due, both di- 
rectly and indirectly, to the Red agitation. Directly, 
in that the preaching of the Reds all leads toward loaf- 
ing. Indirectly, since it is well recognized by students 
of the psychology of industrial efficiency that any gen- 
eral unrest or agitation, such as the Revolutionary 
campaign, is a great and definite hindrance to pro- 
duction. 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 325 

How important the effect of this new slacking has 
been can only be estimated. In a survey of industrial 
centers in the summer of 19 19, The New York 
Tribune found that bank officials, on their knowledge 
of industrial conditions, were unanimous in the state- 
ment that there had been a sharp decline in the output 
per man per hour between 19 14 and 19 19, in spite of 
increased wages. Some estimated the loss at 45 per 
cent, none lower than 20 per cent, and the average at 
about 35 per cent. On this point the Bache Reviezv 
said: 

High costs to-day, to a 'great percentage of such cases, 
are due to the fact that Labor, while receiving very large 
v^ages in many directions, is much less efficient compared 
with what it was before the war. In some cases, where the 
output has been checked up, it has been shown that labor 
is turning out only 60% of normal. If we can ever get 
labor up to 100% we shall have such an increased production 
as will tilt the scale of prices steadily downward. 

The U. S. Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Co., report- 
ing on conditions for 19 18, told its stockholders: 

With a large percentage their wages were not earned. 
Yours was quite the usual experience, to wit: high wages 
made for inefficiency. As is well understood there can be 
no objection to high wages if earned. The measure lies 
in the value of things produced in relation to other things. 

A SUM IN ARITHMETIC 

How these various factors of loss work out in in- 
creasing the prices of products, may be shown by a 



326 LABOR AND REVOLT 

simple, hypothetical example. The cost of anything, 
when it leaves the factory, is the total of the amounts 
spent for raw materials, for labor, and for what the 
accountants call "overhead." This last includes the 
expenses of management, light, heat, power, bookkeep- 
ing, and the vast amount of miscellaneous labor that 
cares for the factory and serves the producing forces. 
Its proportion to other costs varies in different fac- 
tories according to the accounting system used, but it 
always bears a direct and constant relation to the wage 
cost, as it is itself made up to a big extent of wages of 
employees not directly engaged in production. 

Assume as an illustration that when the war opened 
in 191 4 a certain factory product was costing $30 ; $10 
each for labor, materials, and overhead. If we take 
average increases, there must be added 75% to the 
cost of both raw materials and wages, making each 
item $17.50. If there has been, also a "slacking" in 
effort by labor of 35%, the cost of this must be 
figured at that proportion of the labor cost — ^$6.12, 
making the total labor cost $23.73. The overhead, 
still 100% of the labor cost, is thus also $23.73, 
much of it, of course, being for wages. So the total 
cost of the article has become $64.85, an increase 
of 116%, as against the 75% wage increase. 

It is no wonder that Labor complains that prices 
rise more than enough to pay the increased wages — 
they have to ! 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 327 

COSTS, COSTS, AND YET MORE COSTS ! 

All these things bring added costs with them. There 
is the cost of idle machinery; the result is the same 
whether a plant be shut down or manned by men who 
make those machines yield only half their proper pro- 
duction. A factory is a heavy investment, and such 
items as interest on the money put into it, insurance, 
protection, taxes and general expenses continue 
whether the plant is at full capacity or at none. Ulti- 
mately they must all be figured into the cost of the 
product, big or little, that has been turned out. 

There is the direct effect on other industries. That 
of strikes has been discussed. But since to a large 
extent each industry is the producer of raw materials 
for another, the increased costs in each are passed 
ahead and of necessity swelled as they pass. 

AND THE PUBLIC PAYS ! 

Every one of these costs must be paid by the con- 
sumer whether he be wage earner or capitalist. Every 
cost has to come from somewhere and that place is 
always the pocket of the final buyer. The process may 
be affected a little, but only a little, by the curtailment 
of profits. The great bulk is a cost to the consumer — 
to society — ^that can neither be evaded nor long de- 
layed. 

The greater part both of the cost and the payment 
for the cost comes back on the wage earner. It is he 



328 LABOR AND REVOLT 

who gets the benefit, receiving more money for a 
smaller return. He it is who pays, giving out more 
money for a smaller purchase. In the creaking of 
the industrial machinery as it readjusts itself to these 
changes there are always some groups which suffer 
more than others, as the salaried workers have suf- 
fered in recent years, but in the long run these things 
balance on a basis of values. 

If there were no curtailment of production, and the 
matter were simply one of price, the performance 
would be that of the Dutch women who maintain them- 
selves by washing one anothers' clothes. Although 
wages increase, both labor cost and the cost of slacking 
force up prices, and in the end Labor is no better off. 
So there comes a new demand for higher pay, and the 
whole round of increased prices starts over again. 
Thus is created the notorious "vicious circle" of rising 
prices, with worker, middleman, carrier and retailer 
all trying to climb over each others' shoulders. The 
circle does not end until something breaks — a panic. 

EVERY FORM OF PROGRESS CHECKED 

But the effect of the restriction of production on the 
whole progress of society is incalculable. The suicide 
that is brought about is social and cultural as well as 
economic, for the cultural advance of any large part 
of the people of a nation must rest on general pros- 
perity. It is economic welfare only that gives room 
and scope for the cultivation of all the benefits of 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 329 

leisure, education and recreation — things that are im- 
possible till the primal wants are satisfied. 

Before passing from the subject of the effect of 
labor policies upon prosperity it may be well to make 
a brief survey of conditions that have come about in 
Australia, where policies almost identical with those 
now demanded here have almost reached fruition. 
The facts used here are taken from Dr. Clarence H. 
Northcott's '^Australian Social Development." 



AUSTRALIA A feoPHETIC MIRROR 

In Australia Labor's domination is practically com- 
plete. Its views have been enacted into law, its leaders 
are the controlling officials. Labor is up to 40 per cent 
radical — Australia shows the fullest development of 
the one big union idea. 

Dr. Northcott finds that under Labor control the 
policies we have been discussing prevail. Skill is dis- 
credited, and there is a marked tendency toward equal- 
ity of pay for skilled and unskilled labor; there is 
opposition to any system that would measure pay by 
the amount produced: there is restriction of the labor 
supply ; there is a growth of laziness, of arrogance, of 
hatred; there is an increase in strikes in spite of the 
laws. The result has been excessive increase in the 
cost of living, due, he believes, not so much to higher 
wages as to slacking and lack of efficiency, and the 
wages have failed to keep pace with this rising price 



330 LABOR AND REVOLT 

level in actual purchasing power, so that the worker is 
worse off than when Labor control began. 

"Instead of realizing the national purpose with a 
minimum of loss of time and energy," Dr. Northcott 
declares "it has produced a wasteful and bitter class 
struggle, wherein social energy and political activity 
are consumed, and whereby advance is hindered." 

Not all the failures that he finds are economic. The 
promises of Labor, both there and here, are not ful- 
filled when power comes. There is no better work 
done for the state than for the capitalist; women do 
not get equal pay for equal work ; there is no sense of 
duty to the public, and the people are the direct vic- 
tims of many of the strikes; the labor movement 
makes no use of the development of social sciences, but 
advances according to whim or passion; the time 
gained from work is used in amusement and not in 
culture ; the Labor government has not made adequate 
provision for public health, there is a scarcity of play- 
grounds for the cities' children, and factory conditions 
are below standard, while hours of work are arranged 
without adequate regard for sex or age. The result is 
poor health, particularly for girls just entering woman- 
hood. Finally the reform movement of the labor ele- 
ment has "run out"; "a movement built up through 
solidarity of action and the fullest respect for democ- 
racy has become distrustful of leaders, intolerant of 
freedom of opinion, and has developed the caucus sys- 
tem into control by a series of cliques." 

Such is the crop of the conditions which Labor is 



THE HIGH COST OF LAZINESS 331 

sowing in American industry; a crop poisonous alike 
to Labor and to all prosperity. The danger signal of 
high and fast rising prices, instead of stopping the 
career toward economic suicide, has served as a red 
rag to a bull, and is spurring the worker to greater and 
greater disaster. 

To this end the Revolution is helping mightily, and 
since disaster is its hope, it is mightily pleased. 



CHAPTER XIX 

SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 

Soap-box financing, the Red's vision — What Labor receives for 
its product — Burdens it must always carry: distribution, 
replacement of machinery, enlargement of industrial plant, 
experiments — "Hoarded wealth" at work — How wealth is 
now distributed — Labor could not increase its share more 
than a fourth — Excess wage would "eat up the fat" of 
social accumulation and bring bankruptcy — The sure vic- 
tory of mathematics over theory. 

There is a peculiar kind of financmg that centers 
in New York City, in front of the MetropoHtan build- 
ing, at the corner of Madison Square — a very comfort- 
ing and stimulating kind of financing. The passer-by 
there almost any evening if he will stop and listen, 
will hear the whole world made prosperous by a series 
of "ifs/' 

If labor gets its full share, and if every idler is forced 
to work, and if all the people who now live on the 
sweat of the toilers' brow in "idleness" by buying and 
selling things ''in idleness" and by managing things, 
are also forced to work, then everybody will live in 
luxury, and nobody will have to work much! 

So runs the soap-box scheme — sometimes the indi- 
vidual income to be received under it is high, some- 

332 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 333 

times higher ; it has been as low as $5,000 a year, and 
as high as $25,000. 

It is a beautiful picture that the Revolution thus 
holds before the American worker; before men earn- 
ing on an average not over $800 a year— the 19 10 
census put the figure at $509, but there has been a big 
increase since. Not all of the Reds are foolish enough 
to indulge in $25,000 flights of fancy, but all agree on 
the general outlines. 

The Reds also paint another picture — that of a vast 
store of "hoarded wealth," sweated out of the workers, 
and treasured by the capitalists, a hoard that will be the 
workers' when once they get control, "expropriate the 
expropriators'* and make a "fair and equal" division. 

It was shown in the preceding chapter that the Reds 
and much of Organized Labor are doing their best 
to decrease the store of wealth and the amount to be 
divided and are steadily forcing higher the expense of 
living for themselves and everybody else. But the 
question whether Labor is getting a fair proportion 
of the wealth it produces was excluded. So was one 
of the deductions that logically follows the economic 
law that there can be no division of nothing, to wit: 
that if the workers succeed in getting as wages more 
than they produce there will be a deficit in the national 
economy that will lead the country straight for bank- 
ruptcy. It will mean a continued drain from the pre- 
viously accumulated national wealth. 

In the light of this fact must be considered the share 
that Labor now gets, the share it might possibly re- 



334 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ceive, the "living wage," and the results that will fol- 
low if the wage average outruns production value. 

WHEN THE HANDS REBEL AGAINST THE BODY 

It must be admitted that the first part of the funda- 
mental proposition is true, in one sense of the words: 
"Labor is the sole producer." Labor feeds, clothes, 
warms, transports and serves society, and its sweat is 
on everything we buy. It is to society as the hands 
are to the body. The Reds would have the hands 
rebel, claiming that they are the only part of the 
national body that should be fed and clothed, and that 
if necessary to insure having the whole to themselves, 
they should destroy the rest of the body. There was 
a fable written once about the rebellion of the mem- 
bers against the belly, but the Reds do not believe in 
that kind of fable. 

Labor to-day actually does get less than half of what 
it produces. The other half is absorbed by the "three 
rents" of revolutionary jargon — rent, interest and 
profits. All these the Revolution would abolish. They 
are the "burden on labors' shoulders." Let us look at 
that burden a moment, and get the meaning behind the 
"three rents." 

WHAT THE BODY DOES FOR THE HANDS 

In our complex economic structure, very little indeed 
is produced at the point where it is consumed, or by 
the man from whom the consumer will finally buy it. 



i^SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 335 

Ninety per cent of Labor's products have to pass 
through various hands before they are at a place where 
they become useful to anyone. The distribution 
forms what is known as "business** or trade — the 
people who carry it on are known to the economists as 
"entrepreneurs," men in business for themselves. 
Farm owners are included in this class. Thus "profit'* 
to which the Reds object is their pay for making the 
distribution. It is actually a part of the cost of 
production. 

Upon "interest" fall other great burdens. It has to 
replace the machinery which becomes worn out, or 
out-dated in the factories, and this is a most expensive 
matter. While the life of different kinds of machinery 
varies exceedingly, none of it lasts forever, and it is 
customary for big concerns to figure as the amount to 
be set aside yearly for this replacement five to ten per 
cent of the total investment in the plant. This means 
that America practically buys itself an entirely new 
industrial machine^ — a new suit of economic clothes — 
about every fifteen years. "Interest" pays for this. 

"Interest" also has to pay for expansion of busi- 
ness. The workers speak of the "machines made by 
our own hands" as turning out profit for the capitalist. 
It is a true picture — but the capitalist supported the 
worker while he made those machines. Between 1850 
and 1904, according to the figures given by Professor 
King, the money value of the economic goods 
possessed by the people of America increased from 
$7> 1 35^780,000 to $107,104,212,000, an average of 



336 LABOR AND REVOLT 

$1,850,000,000 a year. Between 1900 and 1904 the 
increase was much more rapid — $4,646,000,000 a year. 
This mostly has gone into the working plant of the 
nation and has come out of "interest.'* 

Interest and profits together bear several other ex- 
penses: the cost of the experiments which society 
makes before taking any important new step, the cost 
of philanthropy, much of the cost of education. It is 
they, too, that run the risks. Capital opens mines that 
may not pay, builds railroads in undeveloped territory, 
markets new products which may or may not be 
bought; carries the great reserve supplies of goods 
without which the nation would live literally from 
hand to mouth, and risks having them spoil on its 
hands or lose value before they can be sold. In times 
of panic it is capital and business that go through 
bankruptcy, and suffer the heaviest loss of income. 
Wages are far less subject to fluctuation, far better 
protected against occasional stress, than are either in- 
terest or profits. 



And the "hoarded wealth,'' where is it? That four 
and a half billion added investment every year gives the 
answer. It is at work. It is engines and trucks, and 
machinery and cows and flat cars, and steamships and 
farmhouses and spinning mills. The minute it stops 
work it becomes either old iron or, if alive, a hay- 
consuming liability. The amount invested in "per- 
sonal" things, the real "hoarded wealth," is almost 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 337 

trivial by comparison. It is a very rich man whose 
personal possessions would equal the cost of a loco- 
motive, many "capitalists" could not sell their clothes 
— even their wives' clothes — and house furnishings 
for the price of a flat-car. The hoarded wealth of the 
Red dreams is just a little more than that in the pot 
at the rainbow's end — enough to make a few men rich, 
but not enough to make any important difference If 
divided among millions. 

It may be argued that no matter how important 
capital's contribution is, its funds have been stolen 
from the workers, and its property should belong to 
them. It is true that much of the wealth is in the 
hands of men who can show no adequate service to 
the nation to account for it — ^much of it, on the other 
hand, is the result of thrift, enterprise or other real 
service. It is also true that all the needs of society 
would be as well met if the workers would tax their 
income to take care of all these burdens, instead of 
having them passed, at a price, through the hands of 
capital. 

The point is that by some means or other these 
needs must be met if the nation, if society, is to con- 
tinue to advance, if it is not to fall backward. The 
modern system, imperfect as it is, does meet these 
vital needs. The labor agitators, and even more the 
Reds, have no room in their theory, their plans, nor, 
as will be shown shortly, in their practices, for these 
all-important services. ''Labor should have the whole 
product" is the end of their proposition. 



338 LABOR AND REVOLT 

If it ever does, unless it has learned far more than 
to-day about saving, society and civilization, will stop 
short. 

( 

A COMPARISOlsr OF POCKET BOOKS 

The present distribution of the national income of 
which Labor and the Reds complain so bitterly accord- 
ing to the latest figures, which are of those of 1910, 
gives to employes 46.970 of the total, to rent 8.8%, 
to profits — the "entrepreneur" — 27.5% and to inter- 
est, which carries replacement and progress, 16.8%. 

The fluctuations of these figures are interesting. 
Wages jumped from 35.8% in 1850 to 48.6% in 1870 
and reached their highest point in 1890 — ^just before 
the big tide of immigration set in — 53.5%. Interest 
was 12.5% in 1850 and has fluctuated irregularly; its 
highest share was 18.6% in 1880. Rent has been 
almost stable, varying between 6.9% in 1870 and the 
8.8% of 19 10, which figure was also reached in i860. 
Profits have fluctuated most; they were highest in 
1850 at 44.0%) and had dropped to 31.6% in 1870, 
since when they have been: 21.3% in 1880; 24.6% in 
1890, and 30.0% in 1900. 

Translated into the terms of individual income, 
these figures mean that employes averaged $509 each 
in 19 10, and the "entrepreneurs" — the men who work 
for themselves and make "profits" — $899. There is 
no "capitalist class" in America, the Reds to the con- 
trary notwithstanding, since every man who has a 
dollar in a savings bank is a capitalist, and the "inter- 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 339 

est*' share of the national income is thus distributed 
too widely to permit averages. It is the same with the 
"rent" slice. The only other statistical figure that 
throws much light on the situation is that for buying. 
The estimated consumption of goods in America in 
19 10 averaged $359 per capita — less than labor's earn- 
ings, an indication that an even distribution would not 
greatly add to the worker's purchasing power, 

THE STAKE OF THE BATTLE 

How much of this 53.1% of the nation's annual 
income, now paid to classes other than productive 
labor, could be diverted to increase the wage earners' 
share without destroying the whole national economic 
machine? On the answer to that question must de- 
pend the judgment on Labor's demands. 

Professor King has studied the question carefully. 
He figures that it would be possible to seize the entire 
rent charge, 8.8%. It would also be possible to take 
from the profits slice about one-fourth or $225 — 
bringing this share down to $674, but hardly to reduce 
it to the exact level of wages, since business does have 
to carry risks, and on the whole business men are and 
must be m.ore intelligent than laboring men as a rule. 

"Interest cannot be decreased without resulting in 
a loss of saving," he says, "hence the interest bill 
could scarcely be lessened without destructive effects 
to the capital supply of our country, thus ruining our 
industries." Even if this were taken away from the 
capitalists it would have to be spent in maintaining 



340 LABOR AND REVOLT 

and expending our economic machinery, and the 
worker would not get it. 
His conclusion is this: 

It would seem improbable that, with omr present national 
productive power, any feasible system of distribution could 
increase the average earner's income in purchasing power 
by more than one- fourth ; and this is an extreme rather than 
a moderate estimate. While such a change might or might 
not be desirable, it would, at least, work no revolution in 
the condition of employes of the United States. 

So that after all, if Professor King's figures are 
correct — and he comes from the University of Wis- 
consin which is not given to bias in favor of Capital- 
ism — the utmost that could come from the Revolution 
(if it worked) would be an addition of one-quarter 
to the workers' earnings. Many workers since the 
war started have won increases far greater than that, 
both absolutely and in purchasing power. It certainly 
would be, as he says, no revolutionary change. If 
this were done, it should be noted, wages and profits 
would differ little^ — ^$636 against $674. 

IF INDUSTRY TURNS CANNIBAL 

This, then, is the utmost margin on which Labor 
has to work in its efforts to increase wages if it is 
not to begin destroying the industrial system. If it 
takes more than that margin disaster will be directly 
ahead, for we shall have to pay wages by letting our 
farms and our railways and our factories run down,^ 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 341 

become less productive and more expensive to operate. 
If Labor should, as the Reds demand, get the whole 
product we could expect our industrial machine to be 
worn out and obsolete in twenty years at the most. 
The whole of the inheritance from the previous gen- 
erations, the great store of our saving, our legacy to 
the future, all would be destroyed. 

This process is already going on in England. Mark 
Sullivan, in an article in Collier^s Weekly, describes 
how it is working: 

Labor is using its power to pay itself high wages. But 
these wages for the present are coming out of borrowed 
money. Great Britain is still borrowing and still spending 
almost as much as she borrowed and spent while the war 
was on. When the borrowing is over. Labor, being in 
control of the government, will continue to pay itself high 
wages. With the borrowing stopped, the money will come 
out of high taxation, out of capital levies. That, of course, 
will be merely a process of using up the nation's accumulated 
capital. It will be living on the fat. When that ends 
EngHsh Labor and the English nation will be in a very 
bad way. When that crisis comes Labor will have to face 
the strain. It is possible that Labor, under that strain, may 
go back to the old system of low wages and hard living 
condition. If it does not there will be no other alternative 
for England except wholesale emigration to places where 
there are more advantageous economic conditions. 



The process is complete in Russia, or nearly so, on 
the admission of the Bolsheviks themselves. Na- 
tional Economy, a Soviet publication, declares that 



342 LABOR AND REVOLT 

''Russia lived on the reserves, gradually destroying 
them and distributing them among the population, 
without any prospects for the increase and improve- 
ment of the work, and this cannot continue much 
longer." The paper frankly states that the deteriora- 
tion of the discipline of Labor is the chief cause of 
the distress of the nation — not the Allied blockade as 
the Reds here charge. It declares that the country 
must return to the wage system, the first thing which 
was abolished by the Revolution, and not only that, 
but to a wage system based on piece work and the 
premium system. That is the end of "equality." 
Lenin even demands the Taylor efficiency system 
which American Labor rejects as oppressive. And 
Isvestia, organ of the Central Soviet, urges that the 
shops be put under discipline as strict as the army, and 
with the same penalties. In fact, this has been done 
already in many factories. 

So the Bolshevists themselves now recognize that 
the major cause of the bankruptcy of Russia and of 
her hideous distress is the squandering of the capital, 
of the inheritance of the past. The Soviet has found 
that wealth it seized was far less than it expected, that 
it was quickly dissipated, and that production, and 
production on the capitalistic basis of exploitation that 
will force the workers to work, is the only hope of 
salvation. 

What could be seized in America would be far 
greater in money value but probably not much greater 
in its power to support life without work. 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 343 

The best argument that can be offered for not 
molesting the Soviet government is that it shall have 
full time to demonstrate to the world the fallacies of 
the whole theory on which it was based, and for which 
it has steeped the country in blood. 

HOW TO BREED POVERTY 

There are certain other evils which seem certain to 
follow overpay of Labor, though in comparison with 
this immense disaster they are slight. 

The most important of these is the danger that 
would come if the wage increased faster than the 
standard of living. Many experiences the world over 
have shown that there is a direct relationship between 
living standard, income and the birthrate. The major- 
ity of mankind have just as many children as they can 
possibly support on the income they get, at the stand- 
ard they demand. If the income be increased, then, 
without a higher standard, there will be a higher birth 
rate but no greater comfort. 

So that if absolute equality were enforced on the 
basis of America's present production and the fam- 
ily income of all were put at the average of about 
$1500 it would shortly come about that those whose 
standard is now low would have multiplied up to the 
low-standard margin of their income and would be as 
poverty-stricken as ever. Meanwhile the whole of so- 
ciety would have suffered from the lack of education, 
leisure and culture which would have been imposed 



344 LABOR AND REVOLT 

upon it and there would be no less poverty nor dis- 
content. 



AID AND COMFORT TO BUSINESS RIVALS 

Another evil is that the driving up of prices in 
America endangers our foreign trade just at the time 
when the results of the war have put it in our power 
to take commercial leadership of the world with all 
its advantages. The American Chamber of Commerce 
in London reported in November, 1919, six months 
after the American strike wave started, that British 
trade was benefiting noticeably by our troubles. As 
British Labor settles down — and it is being implored 
by its more intelligent leaders to do so — the benefit 
will be greater. 

More important, because of Germany's vast plans 
for world-dominion through commerce, is the advan- 
tage that we are giving our late enemy. What those 
plans are and what the German aid to Reds in Amer- 
ica in furtherance of them is, have been shown. In 
Germany to-day Labor is seeing the need of produc- 
tion and saving and we have the amazing spectacle of 
organizations of workers demanding a ten hour day, 
instead of eight, and asking that these hours be made 
statutory for the whole of Germany. German compe- 
tition will be hard to meet at best; if these workers 
have their way, and American Labor has its way, there 
can be no question which nation will win industrial 
supremacy. 



SQUANDERING OUR INHERITANCE 345 



LABOR ONLY CAN MAKE '^LIVING WAGe" POSSIBLE 

With the great social demand oi the day, that for a 
"living wage," there can be no quarrel by any man or 
women of even decently humane instincts. We are 
not paying a living wage now, and it is more than 
doubtful whether the one-fourth increase which seems 
possible would pay it. In other words, America cannot 
afford to pay a living wage, unless we are to take the 
road to bankruptcy — on our present amount of pro- 
duction. 

It is Labor itself, far more than any other factor, 
that limits production. So we have labor in the posi- 
tion of putting a high and just value on the human 
factor in production, but at the same time destroying 
the only basis on which that high value can be main- 
tained. 

It is told of William Jennings Bryan that once when 
discussing the theory of evolution, he said, "I prefer 
not to believe in such an unpleasant doctrine," and of 
Charles Francis Train that when he objected to some 
truth he would write it on a blackboard, erase it and 
say, "See, it no longer exists." There is no record 
that evolution or facts were affected by the attitude 
of these eminent men. Nor can all the denunciations 
of all the Reds in the world, nor of all the labor agi- 
tators, beat the laws of mathematics and of economics. 
Wealth, to be distributed, must be produced, and the 
spending of more wealth than is produced means bank- 



346 LABOR AND REVOLT 

ruptcy, the squandering of the inheritance of civiliza- 
tion. 



HOW MUCH IS A DEAD GOOSE WORTH ? 

It has been pointed out that Labor in America is 
coming into a position of control. It will be able prac- 
tically to fix its own wages, as British labor has done. 
Can it curb its appetite? Or will it increase its pro- 
duction to feed its desires? Unless it maintains the 
balance between the two the results of its rule will be 
worse for the country, and worse for Labor itself, 
than any Capitalistic exploitation has been or could be, 
for the Capitalists have saved and have kept the ma- 
chinery going and have financed progress, while Labor, 
turned greedy, could devour the whole basis of civil- 
ization in a few years. 

Russia has done it in two ! 

This is what the Red seeks. If next year, or ten 
years from now, the country comes to bankruptcy or 
the verge of bankruptcy, if Labor then has killed and 
eaten the goose because her eggs were not big enough, 
the Reds believe that Revolution then will be assured, 
that the misery and hardship and disappointed ignor- 
ance of that time will carry the workers to armed 
revolt. 

That is the real danger from the Red campaign 
among American workers to-day. Labor finds it easy 
to listen to Madison Square financiers, and to play, for 
what it thinks is its own benefit, the game of the Reds. 



PART V 
THE DANGER AND THE HOPE 



CHAPTER XX 

THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 

The spreading panic — Talk o£ "fighting it out" — Democracy's 
defenses: prosperity, lack of classes, individualism, the 
fundamental conflict between Labor and the farmers, the 
reserve corps in the Appalachians, the power of counter- 
organization, the "white collar" reserves of labor-power, the 
increasing power of women, the power of the majority, the 
final resource of force — The weaknesses of Democracy : our 
power not self-starting, ignorance wide-spread, the Negro, 
the alien, irresolution and cowardice in government — Fun- 
damental strength. 

The end of the first year of the intensive cultivation 
of trouble in America by the Reds and by Labor re- 
sulted in a crop of distress that thoroughly alarmed 
the nation. The President called conferences which 
conferred and separated with more or less hard feeling. 
Legislative bodies investigated and reported. Grand 
juries also investigated. Press and pulpit fulminated. 
Officials issued warnings. And in the big building up 
on the hill in Washington Senator Myers revealed to 
his colleagues a vision of a Soviet republic conquering 
America in time to avoid the necessity of a presiden- 
tial campaign in 1920. 

There were a few activities which were more con- 
crete. Raids on Red headquarters netted much infor- 
mation and many prisoners. There were numberless 

349 



3SO LABOR AND REVOLT 

indictments and a few trials. There was ostentatious 
mobilizing of troops in various places, and unostenta- 
tious demobilizing of the same troops. Once or twice 
these troops did something, and then there was talk of 
investigation. Finally, after many delays, there was a 
considerable deportation of alien Reds. Most serious, 
there were the cases of mob law, of rioting and dis- 
order which in America so frequently accompany the 
other symptoms of public distress and confusion. 

All this was on the surface. Under it was a genuine 
panic. Many public officials did not know what should 
be done, what the nation wanted done, or what could 
be done. Business men were even more alarmed. The 
labor troubles made it uncertain what the cost of pro- 
duction would be at any future time, and manufactur- 
ers were wary of taking contracts at any fixed price. 
This slowed down the whole machinery of production. 
There was a general fear that Labor had secured a 
weapon which was irresistible, and the danger of sur- 
render to such demands as those of the coal miners 
forced Attorney General Palmer to warn the public 
against being "stampeded by threats of lack of coal 
into concessions which will insure unreasonably high 
prices in commodities for at least three years to come." 

The situation was at its worst when the President's 
first conference met and disagreed in November, just 
a year after the armistice. "Black November" many 
business men called it: the steel strike was still on, the 
coal strike was starting, and the railway brotherhood 
officials held in their hands the authorization for a 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 351 

strike to force the adoption of the Plumb plan. All 
three were menaces with a distinct revolutionary color, 
and the three together involved the whole basic struc- 
ture of industry. 



BUSINESS SEES A BOGIE-MAN 

When the conference gathered in Washington there 
was an undercurrent of talk that was not megaphoned 
on the platform, a current of real opinion that was far 
more a measure of the temper of the men there than 
were their speeches. 

"Why try to compromise any more ?'' ran this talk. 
"Labor is out for power and full control, perhaps for 
Revolution. The mask is off. The issue is clear. It 
is not a struggle between Capital and Labor, but be- 
tween the United States and the American Federation 
of Labor, backed by the Reds. Why not have a finish 
fight right now, and then get back to business?" 

This may have been good logic, but some of its al- 
leged facts were wrong and it would have been very 
poor tactics. It would have done just the thing that 
the Reds are hoping for — brought on a state of dis- 
pute and disorder and unrest that would make the best 
possible soil for the sprouting of their carefully 
planted seeds of Revolution. It is reported here to 
show the highly nervous state into which the country 
was getting. 



352 LABOR AND REVOLT 



'"never bet against AMERICA^' 



One of the things that helped make J. Pierpont 
Morgan great and rich was his motto: "Never bet 
against the future of America." He always refused 
to take the "bear" side of transactions, and his position 
at the time of his death testified to the soundness of his 
faith. The people who were seeing Soviets and the 
Terror just around the corner were forgetting those 
solid factors in American civilization which are so 
assured that we are as prone to ignore them as we are 
the air we breathe, but are our bulwark against Revo- 
lution and destruction, however serious and expensive 
our civic sicknesses may be. It is impossible to obtain 
a clear and just idea of the actual menaces of the pres- 
ent situation without having these strengths of ours 
constantly in mind. 

First of all is our prosperity. Even the troubles of 
the war and of the agitation that followed it have 
affected that very little. Labor's increased comfort 
has been shown. There was no increase in business 
failures: there was no decrease in consumption, in 
spite of the high prices; the savings accounts swelled. 

Prosperity is not good soil for Revolution. Men do 
not take desperate chances unless they are desperate, 
and American Labor is far from that. It is only the 
very bottom that has nothing to lose and everything to 
gain by Revolution. The great body of Labor has 
much to lose; it seeks to gain only what it can gain 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 353 

without risking its present possessions and prosperity. 
The real damage it may do will be that of error, and 
not of intent. 

Second is the fact that there are no classes in Amer- 
ica in the sense in which the Old World knows them. 
Our capitalists are practically all workers, and hard 
workers; to a tremendous extent our workers are 
capitalists in greater or less degree — there are 200,000 
stockholders, for example, in the Pennsylvania rail- 
way, the majority of them employes. There is a 
shifting from one economic level to another which 
prevents any real development of the class-conscious- 
ness which is the foundation of Red hopes. 

The Reds themselves will testify to this, with bitter- 
ness. " It is astonishing how naive Americans are,'* 
Emma Goldman complains. "The average American 
is the very last to learn of the modern means and tac- 
tics employed in the great struggles of his day.'* The 
Radicals who testified before the Overman committee 
of the U. S. Senate declared that in class-conscious- 
ness and "economic awareness" the American prole- 
tariat was far more ignorant than the illiterate Rus- 
sians : which means that Americans do not agree with 
the Reds and the Reds are discouraged. 

A third strength is in American individualism, a 
sturdy growth that has many weaknesses but that rises 
up to fight any attempt at the excessive organization 
and subordination of Marxian Socialism and infinitely 
prefers the chances of a free-for-all fight, if assured 
of reasonable rules, to the certainty of stall-fed pros- 



354 LABOR AND REVOLT 

parity. It is both the cause and the product of Democ- 
racy ; it is also one of its strongest safeguards. 



WHEN SCYTHE AND HAMMER CLASH 

Coming to the more personal forces which stand be- 
tween America and Revolution or Labor control, the 
first is the farmers. Labor has been making many 
bids for co-operation with the farmers, and the Non- 
partisan League has seemed to move toward it, but 
the agreements are superficial, and will remain so. 
The efforts of the open Reds in that direction have 
fallen quite flat. 

There are fundamental differences between the 
farmers and Labor which the agitators are trying to 
overlook, but which will not be ignored. In the first 
place, the farmer is the living answer to the Reds' false 
axiom that Labor is the sole producer, and the one 
vital factor in the national life. We might live with- 
out all that wage-labor produces, but not without food. 
In the second place the interests of the farmer and the 
laborer are directly opposed; the worker wants cheap 
food and high prices for manufactures that will make 
high wages possible; the farmer wants cheap manu- 
factures and high prices for food. 

Finally the farmer is an embodied appetite for land 
^nd for his private and personal ownership thereof, 
and any attempt to put into effect the Red scheme for 
"socialization" of the farms will bring the embattled 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 355 

farmer out with his shotgun even more quickly than 
did the British invasion of Concord. 

The Labor agitation has shown all this clearly. The 
farmers of the country have attacked Radicalism and 
the recent Labor demands in mass and in detail. 
Oliver Wilson, master of the National Grange, de- 
nounced "radicalism, nationalization and anarchy," 
demanded immigration laws to keep out un-American 
people who brought revolutionary ideas, and opposed 
Labor's demand for shorter hours. The Farmers* 
National Congress lumped Capital, Labor and Revolu- 
tion in its denunciations for attempts to override 
Americanism and the rights of the people. The Inter- 
national Farm Congress specifically demanded that 
Labor cease agitation for shorter hours or higher pay. 

If by any chance Labor and the farmers should find 
themselves in the same organization, their conflicting 
demands can be counted on to prevent effective action 
of any kind. There would hardly be enough of the 
nation left to be worth exploiting. 

Most important is the fact that the farmers consti- 
tute the largest single group in America. Labor and 
much of the rest of the country are very likely to for- 
get this, but the politicians never do. The farmers' 
demands upon politics are few and simple, and they do 
not interfere with the running of the rest of the coun- 
try. But what they do demand they get — the repeal 
of daylight saving, for instance, simply because it dis- 
turbed the habits of their cows. It has been pointed 
out that Labor will control the politics of the country 



3s6 LABOR AND REVOLT 

to a great degree, but that control will always be lim- 
ited by the interests of the farmer. There is a dead- 
line there that no political party or faction dares cross. 



MOUNTAIN-GROWN, FOOL-PROOF PATRIOTISM 

Another great group, of which probably most of the 
Reds have never heard, is that of the hillmen of the 
Appalachians, the so-called "mountain whites." These 
lank and poorly dressed survivals of the frontier are 
the most highly individualistic people in America; 
they have a flaming patriotism which is fool-proof, 
and they are a solidly "American" stock — English, 
Scotch-Irish and Huguenot. Mostly farmers, owners 
of sterile but cherished hillsides, self-reliant to an 
amazing degree, they can be counted on to fight with 
any means in their power any Revolutionary ten- 
dencies. 

And they have several means. There are nearly 
eight million of them, a not inconsiderable number in 
an election. They are capable and vigorous workers 
when they care to be. They dislike and distrust all 
"furriners," beginning with their neighbors of the 
lowlands and mounting in increasing stages to a pity- 
ing contempt of the occasional aliens who have in- 
vaded their fastnesses. They resent discipline but 
furnished the best snipers and stalkers of the Amer- 
ican Expeditionary Force. 

It was they who, in the Civil War, rallied to the flag 
in such strength that they gave the North a wedge into 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 357 

the heart of the Confederacy, held Kentucky in the 
Union and put that state's full quota into the Federal 
army in spite of the immense numbers who went 
South to join Lee; it was they who, ''jayhawking'' 
from their cliffs, brought to a tragic failure the 
grandiose attempt to shove a Rebel army north 
through West Virginia to Pittsburgh and Buffalo and 
cut the North in two. Their sons are scattering now 
to the north and west, a powerful offset to the alien 
flood and a sure reliance against any attempt upon the 
government. 

The Scotch have a saying that "it is ill takin' the 
breeks aff a hielan' man" and the American high- 
lander will give many "ill" hours to whomsoever at- 
tempts to expropriate his land, his flag or his 
patriotism. 

THE UNTRIED RESOURCES OF THE MAJORITY 

In addition to these resources there is inherent in 
any society a power of counter-organization against 
such minority attempts as that of the Reds or of 
Labor. This power has never been measured because 
it has never been fully roused. We in America have 
hardly tried it ; our organizations outside business and 
politics are mostly more or less glorified debating so- 
cieties, making no demands on their members and 
having little power. What can be done was shown a 
little by the American Protective League, thrown to- 
gether during the war, which was a tremendous if un- 



358 LABOR AND REVOLT 

official aid to the government in fighting disloyalty, 
conspiracy and German propaganda. Yet it did not 
number more than 300,000 members, and a hundred 
times that number could be mobilized if ever the men- 
ace to our Democracy should be seen to be imminent. 

ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY VALUE OF WHITE COLLARS 

A part of this strength is the industrial resource that 
lies in the *'white collar" or "silk stocking" portions of 
society. The Revolution and Labor declare that if 
those who are now working should cease, these people 
would starve and freeze. That is more than doubtful. 
Wearers of white collars are on the average better 
equipped intellectually than are manual workers, they 
are of reasonable health and strength, a majority of 
them are within a generation or two of manual labor, 
and many of them actually have made their living by it. 
They like to live, and would be able to do a great deal 
toward preventing starvation for themselves and their 
dependents if the need arose. 

The skill of even the average trained worker is not 
very difficult to acquire, except in a few trades like 
those of watch making and lithography. During the 
war thousands of "white-collar" men were turned into 
competent workers in short order. In the shipyards 
it was found that an average of only thirty days was 
required to bring the recruits up to the usual skillful- 
ness, and that the cost of the training was less than 
that of replacement by the customary method of ad- 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 359 

vertising and paying fees to employment agencies. 
Such recruits, of course, would never be able to put 
our industries on a normal basis, but they would surely 
bridge the gap between starvation and security. 

THE PETTICOAT BARRIER TO STARVATION 

There must also be counted as a resource the new 
power which our women are exercising in politics and 
business. Woman is naturally conservative, in spite 
of the apparent evidence to the contrary offered by 
the National Woman's Party and some of the Red agi- 
tators. Give a woman a child and her willingness to 
experiment with anything that affects its safety dis- 
appears. 

If there is any difference to be found between the 
votes of women and those of men, it will be on the 
side of safety in the women's vote. In business, too, 
women form a powerful reserve and would be able in 
case of emergency to take over much of the work of 
the "white collars" discussed above, freeing them for 
heavier tasks. Only in case of a final appeal to force 
would her power be small, and there she will hardly 
be needed. 

WHEN PUBLIC OPINION SPURS THE LAW 

All these resources of society, it will be noted, are 
outside those great powers which are exercised by the 
government: law and force. There is a very real 
power in a majority, unorganized and inarticulate 
though it often is, that arms the courts and the mili- 



36o LABOR AND REVOLT 

tary beyond their * 'legal'' strength. The Reds, and to 
some extent Labor, fear and hate these forces, and 
with reason. 

I found a leading and active Socialist in despair 
one day during the closing period of the war. He felt 
that the power of tyranny had triumphed, that the 
people were doomed to eternal slavery, that Socialism 
was dying. Why ? Because about a score of agitators 
in a dozen cities had been arrested! The party was 
disorganized, he said, and he was thinking of becom- 
ing a Non-Partisan Leaguer, or of joining the Labor 
Party. For him, for the time being, the Revolution 
was quite dead. 

If a few arrests can make such a difference, the 
vitality of the movement is not strong. But that is 
beside the point, which is that arrests actually can im- 
pede the Revolution greatly. In general, so far, the 
power of the courts has been invoked very little. It 
will be used more as public opinion becomes aroused, 
for American courts have the peculiarity that they 
deal not so muck in abstract justice as in the inter- 
pretation of the attitude of the people. The immense 
power of our juries assures that. Unpopular laws are 
a dead letter, and a way is often found for inflicting 
punishment that stretches the law greatly, when public 
fear or resentment demands it. 

IF MACHINE-GUNS ARBITRATE 

Finally comes armed force, the ultimate arbiter. 
Regrettable as it may be, the fact is that in the last 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 361 

analysis all security of society still rests on the sol- 
dier's bayonet and the policeman's club. We have 
recently had the World War, and a much smaller but 
equally clear illustration, the Boston police strike, to 
demonstrate the two. When President Wilson said 
that he always "hoped the man with the best argument 
would win,'* he was expressing a sentiment that has 
not yet made itself secure in civilization. If the man 
with the best argument does win, as he usually does, it 
is because he is able to convince the largest number of 
people, and bring force to back his reasoning. Thus 
the idea gives strength to the arm — but the arm does 
the work! 

There fortunately has been little appeal to force. 
No one who realizes the terrible engines which mod- 
ern science has given to the soldiery, who can 
visualize the results of their use upon such a help- 
less mob as the workers would be in the first stages 
of any class war, can hope for anything but that force 
never will be employed, either because of the hysteria 
of the workers or of panic-stricken or brutal officials. 
Rifles, machine guns, aeroplanes armed with bombs 
that would produce a hideous nausea as well as bombs 
that would scatter death, armored cars — all these have 
been held in readiness in some of our recent internal 
disturbances. For the Reds or for Labor to invite 
their use would be a ghastly suicide ; for officials to use 
them without utter need would be cowardly and inhu- 
man crime. Against them there can be no stand ex- 
cept by equal force, and this neither the Reds nor 



362 LABOR AND REVOLT 

Labor can command. To them the vital justice behind 
unrest can make no appeal, while the folly that seeks 
redress by force will meet terrible punishment. For- 
tunately America has little need to fear that they will 
be used against the desires of the nation. 

Whenever throughout history the class-war has 
made a successful start, it has been at a time of dis- 
affection in the army. In France in 1791 only the 
Swiss Guards stood by the throne; when some years 
later Napoleon fired a cannon the class war ended and 
the way for his dictatorship was opened. In the Com- 
mune of 1 87 1 there were 300,000 revolutionary militia 
in Paris, as against 12,000 regulars. In Russia it was 
through the soldiers and sailors that both the bour- 
geois and the Bolshevist revolutions came. Our 
army, both regular and militia, must be corrupted be- 
fore the Revolution here can start. The chance of 
corrupting our regular army is negligible, and the 
militia slight, partly because the "proletariat's" fear of 
the militia has kept workers out of its ranks and left 
it almost entirely to the "bourgeoisie." 

PATRIOTISM BROUGHT BACK FROM THE TRENCHES 

In this matter, too, must be considered the attitude 
of the veterans of the World War, some four million 
men who, almost alone in the nation, are skilled in 
arms. The Reds have made a great effort to reach 
them, through the "Workers, Soldiers' and Sailors' 
Soviets" scheme, but have had almost no success. 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 363 

Such Red propaganda during the war fell flat, affect- 
ing only a few thousand of the millions. Reds 
who were drafted, even, failed to learn what they 
might have of military skill because of their refusal to 
perform soldierly duties. Finally, the outrages upon 
veterans by Reds, at Centralia, Wash., and elsewhere, 
have destroyed the last hope of sympathy with Revo- 
lution, and the ex-fighters are everywhere to be found 
in the forefront of the anti-Red activities. 

It is different with Labor. Many workers went into 
the American army, and served gloriously. They con- 
stitute a power to be respected if the test should ever 
come between Labor, not revolutionary, and the state. 
But even so they are a small part of the veteran force, 
both Irecause part of Labor was slow in supporting the 
war, and because so many workers in the essential in- 
dustries were exempted. 

All in all, the force at society's command would be 
overwhelmingly, pulverizingly against either the Reds 
or Labor (if Labor should by any possibility challenge 
this power) if the test of arms should ever come. 

time's soothing hand 

In all things, too, time is at present working 
strongly in behalf of security. It will be many years 
before the full effects of the war have worn off, and 
prices will probably never return to their pre-war level. 
But with each succeeding year prices will drop, and 
prosperity will increase. It was nearly fifteen years 



364 LABOR AND REVOLT 

after the Napoleonic war before the period of recov- 
ery was completed, and more than ten years after our 
own Civil War. The best business statisticians are 
unable to hazard a guess on how long the present 
period will last, but as we advance through it the 
causes of unrest will steadily diminish, and the Worn 
nerves and wild hopes which the war brought will re- 
turn toward normal. The greatest danger point in 
this period will be the time of the almost-inevitable 
industrial panic, like that of 1873. Such a period has 
so far always followed great wars. 

THE PERILS OF OVER-SLEEPING 

This is the armament of civilization against the 
forces which threaten it. It is overwhelming — if used. 

But it is not self-starting nor self-acting, and until 
called into play by the positive direction of society, 
little or none of it is effective. There can be little 
doubt that society will awaken and use it before the 
final catastrophe comes, but there remains the possi- 
bility, if not the probability, of terrible costs, before 
the awakening. Heavy industrial losses, disorder, vio- 
lence, destruction, death, have already resulted from 
the Red agitation and its effect on Labor. They will 
continue in greater or less degree. So the factors 
must also be reckoned which weaken civilization, pre- 
vent the use of the powers at its disposal and permit 
these injuries. 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 365 

DOUBLE-EDGED IGNORANCE 

First must be listed ignorance. There is dense 
ignorance, complete failure to understand American- 
ism, in the host of foreigners. They are the easiest 
possible prey to any exploitation, utterly unable to test 
by any means the statements made to them. 

There is less ignorance, but almost as dangerous, 
among the bulk of the workers. Our schooling is to 
blame for this; it has given them a smattering of 
many things, including some plain lies about history 
and more inexcusable suppressions of facts which the 
text-book writers thought discreditable or immoral. 
Most of the lies have been found out and have under- 
mined the rest of the teaching and the average worker 
is not equipped to-day for any far-sightedness or even 
correct appraisal of current events. Enlightened self- 
ishness would serve as a check to the worker's hunger ; 
half -enlightened he sees nothing to do but grab. 

Not less menacing is the ignorance among the well- 
to-do and educated groups. It is of the same kind as 
that of Marie Antoinette, who said, *Tf the people 
have no bread, why don't they eat cake ?'' The trials, 
the dangers, the sufferings of the people outside their 
circle of acquaintance are unintelligible to these folk, 
and their conduct a mystery. Nor have they a better 
grasp of the economic situation than have the work- 
ers. They, too, have been grabbing, and the nation 
has paid in its panics for their greed. 

Because they have more present power than the 



366 LABOR AND REVOLT 

workers their ignorance is doubly dangerous. They 
are Hkely to be stampeded into panic by disturbances 
which are real enough, but need by no means be un- 
nerving. Once shaken from the security of ignor- 
ance, they cannot judge any other security, and be- 
come hysterical. It is from them that the danger of 
foolish and brutal reprisals upon the workers will 
come, if the situation grows much worse. Their 
terror may cost far more, in case of an attempted 
revolution, or even in case of grave labor troubles, 
than would the outbreak themselves. 



TWO IMPORTED WEAKNESSES 

There are the Negroes, something of an asset and 
much of a liability. They are a great but unskilled 
labor reserve, though the attempts made to draw them 
to Northern factories have already done much damage 
in the South. But to use them even in labor troubles 
is of doubtful value because of the rancor it would 
cause; to use them to suppress revolt as the Reds say 
they expect, would be as ridiculous as it would be 
needless. Meanwhile their presence, with its danger 
of race antagonism and riot, is a constant weakness. 

A far greater dang'er is in the alien and the alien- 
minded descendants of unassimilated immigrants. 
There are some eleven million of the former, and none 
knows how many of the latter, though we had a star- 
tling revelation during the war of the resistance made 
by the Teuton to Americanization. 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 367 

The menace from them is two-fold. In the first 
place, they are the group that is most easily reached 
and exploited by the Reds, the most ignorant, the most 
bitter against society, the most excitable. Without them 
to-day the Red menace would be almost microscopic. 

But they also are a steady and terrific drag upon 
that prosperity which is the best of all cures for unrest 
and revolution. And the drag is not only the hun- 
dreds of millions of dollars that they take or send 
abroad every year, it is their levy on the wage funds 
which should go to American workers. It is impos- 
sible that this nation should ever abolish poverty in 
its own homes when it opens its door to all the hungry 
and helpless of the world, and shares with them the 
food and raiment belonging to its own people. 

To meet this alien danger the deportation of a few 
Reds, however much it may aid in checking their 
propaganda, is of small importance. But as has been 
said, Labor fully sees this menace and there is every 
likelihood that the dam the war erected against the 
incoming tide will stay in place. 

WEAKNESS THAT TURNS TO STRENGTH 

Then there remain the weaknesses which are as 
fundamental to a democracy as its strengths; irreso- 
lution, divided counsels, political cowardice. With all 
the speeches and investigations and reports on the Red 
menace. Congress talked for two years about new 
laws, but passed none. For more than a year our pub- 



368 LABOR AND REVOLT 

lie machinery seemed powerless — it did not get into 
action. 

Someone has defined a politician as "a man who 
finds out which way the crowd is going, and then runs 
with loud whoops in that direction." This is a libel on 
our politicians as a class, yet it expresses a situation 
in our politics which is inevitable. If our representa- 
tives are to represent us they must first know what we 
want, and that often involves waiting till we find out 
ourselves. We do not tolerate that they should be 
real leaders, deciding in advance of public opinion. An 
American must be a politician before he can become a 
statesman, and the necessity of administering affairs 
with one eye, at least, always on the popular state of 
mind, often produces an appearance of cowardice that 
is hardly justified by the fact. 

This very attitude of our politicians will be an asset 
the moment the country, as a whole, has decided what 
shall be done with and to the Reds, and what shall be 
the attitude toward Labor. In fact, action need not 
wait for the whole country: when the farmers have 
decided, they will tell their Congressmen about it, and 
then we shall have action instead of speeches, and 
laws instead of exhortations. The action and the laws 
may or may not be wise, but they will involve imme- 
diate and painful consequences alike to Red agitators 
and over-grasping labor leaders. 

In spite of its obvious weaknesses, the strength of 
Democracy has proved an amazing thing throughout 
history, and a stumbling block to pure logic, on which 



THE ARMAMENT OF DEMOCRACY 369 

many near-wise men have broken their shins. Tiny 
Greece subduing the Orient, tinier Rome, conquering 
the world, microscopic Switzerland defying her pow- 
erful neighbors through centuries of aggression; 
these things stand out as miracles. The centralized 
state, the weapon swung with a single mighty hand, 
should by all reason be the great instrument of power; 
against it the disorganized, hesitating, nose-counting 
Democracy should not be able to stand. Yet it does, 
and will. 

Those who see in the present challenge, whether 
from Labor or from Revolution, a menace greater 
than America can meet, are forgetting the might of 
the commonwealth that shelters us. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE RED DANGER 

The optimism of the Reds — The ever-receding Revolution — The 
real number of the revolutionists — Greatest danger in effect 
on Labor — The menace of the general strike — How society 
can meet it — The British organization — The Winnipeg 
citizens' organization — The weaknesses of revolution: dis- 
unity, poor leadership, ingrowing distrust, emotional effect 
of defeats — The possibility of a sudden conflagration. 

There is a pleasing and persistent optimism about 
some of the Reds that defies experience. To them the 
Revolution is always just around the corner. "The 
irrestible onward march of the proletariat," "the 
immanence of freedom," "the immediate fulfillment of 
the destiny of the workers" — phrases like these have 
real meaning to them. 

There were no less than eight different movements 
during 1919, which, to these hopeful souls, were to 
usher in the great change. There was the Seattle 
strike, then the Winnipeg strike, then the general 
strike in behalf of Mooney, then the European gen- 
eral strike in behalf of Russia, which was to spread to 
this country; then the Omaha strike which did not 
occur, then the steel and the coal strikes and finally 
Lenin's general European revolt on November 7. 

370 



THE RED DANGER 371 

Each was to be the spark that would start the con- 
flagration. 

Most of the Reds had private hopes of their own 
besides. One New York enthusiast in April predicted 
a Soviet government in Albany by July. Others, espe- 
cially of the Communist party, expected great things 
when their strength was demonstrated at the Novem- 
ber election. All were hopeful of revolutions in 
Europe, at least, and ever-advancing dates were set 
for the proletarian revolts in Italy, France, Spain — 
particularly Spain, and Britain. The dates for these 
events are even now being whispered in inner circles, 
but they are different dates from those current three 
months ago, and they will change again between the 
time this is written and the time it is read. 

There is a time honored story, once in general use 
among spell-binders who wished to disparage the 
strength of their opponents, but lately dropping out 
of employment. It concerns a farmer who offered to 
sell to a hotel a thousand pairs of frogs' legs. When 
he finally delivered only six, he explained that he had 
estimated the population of his dewpond by the noise ! 
It would seem that the ranidian songsters must esti- 
mate their own numbers in much the same way, for 
when the Communist party, after much disturbance 
and a revolution inside the Revolution, finally got 
their noses counted at an election in Buffalo, there 
were fewer than 500 of them. Even they reluctantly 
admitted that the government was unshaken by this 
demonstration, but their hopes are not abated. 



372 LABOR AND REVOLT 

THE VAGUE CENSUS OF DISCONTENT 

What is the real strength of the Revolution? 

It is hard to estimate. The Socialists have polled 
nearly 150,000 votes in a New York election, and 
some 590,000 in the national election in 19 16, but this 
was under the war stress, when malcontents of all 
kinds, and especially pro-Germans, were voting under 
the Socialist emblem. The Socialist Labor vote has 
never reached 30,000. On the other hand, the great 
proportion of Revolutionaries in America who are 
aliens, do not show in votes. 

A better means of measurement is in the member- 
ship of the revolutionary organizations. The Social- 
ists claim about 300,000; the I. W. W. a million, the 
Socialist Labor Party and the Communists only a few 
score thousand each. There are over-lappings among 
these and considerable inflation. It is doubtful if the 
actual enrollment of Reds in America touches the mil- 
lion mark. 

But, on the other hand, there are many sympathizers 
with Revolution who have not joined any of these or- 
ganizations, either from prudential or economic rea- 
sons, and there are many more who soon would join 
if they saw the movement gather strength. With 
them must be counted, if an actual revolt ever starts, 
all the dregs of the population who would join in the 
hope that disorder and violence would give them a 
chance for license, rape and pillage. Altogether, a 
well-informed intelligence officer estimates that the 



THE RED DANGER 373 

Revolution might muster some five millions, but this is 
merely a guess, and he said he would be surprised if it 
could be proved correct within a million. 

Five million people, if we accept this guess, even 
though they number but one in twenty-two of our 
population, make a formidable force, and one that 
could provoke all kinds of trouble. But, as has been 
shown, the actual danger of armed revolt, of revolt 
that could seize and hold for more than a few hours, 
a city, a state, or the nation, is negligible. Hideous 
bloodshed and great destruction might be provoked, 
and may be, but not Revolution. 

Of course, no body which is so largely alien can 
wield any great power in politics, though the Social- 
ists continue to elect an occasional Congressman, and 
carry an occasional city. 

The real danger from the Revolution, as it exists 
to-day, is in its effect on Labor, and its operation 
through Labor for "direct action'* industrially, cul- 
minating in the general strike. Great mischief has 
been done already, both in sabotage which is almost 
beyond reach of the law and in strikes which are en- 
tirely legal, however unjustified. The important men- 
ace is in the general strike, in a city, an industry or the 
nation. 

SOCIETY^S UNDEFENDED FLANK 

Here the Revolution would attack a most vulner- 
able spot. The machinery of industry and of the sup- 



374 LABOR AND REVOLT 

port of society has become so complex, so involved, 
that even a minor disarrangement is serious. Each 
of us now depends so wholly on others for comfort 
and life itself, that if the channels can be choked for 
even a few hours great suffering will follow. If the 
Revolution can win the support of Labor, the stoppage 
cannot be prevented. No power can force men to 
work; If the danger comes it must be handled and 
met in some other way. 

The resources of society listed in the preceding 
chapter show that this can be done if those resources 
are called into action promptly and efficiently. The 
power of counter-organization and the labor reserves 
in the "white collar" groups can meet the strain if 
they are used. Britain showed how this could be done 
in the 19 19 railway strike. The organizations formed 
for war service were remobilized, motor trucks were 
pressed into service, volunteers manned the throttles 
and the switches, and traffic moved — if not as usual, 
at least well enough to prevent starvation and avoid 
disaster, and finally to break the strike. It was a per- 
fect demonstration of the latent power of society to 
care for itself. 

A similar demonstration, on a minor scale, was 
given in Winnipeg during the strike there. For about 
six weeks there was hardly a "worker" who turned 
over his hand in that city. All the fundamental duties 
of safety, food, communication and sanitation fell on 
the "white collars." They not only did the work but 
did it well, in some cases better than before, though 



THE RED DANGER 375 

at the cost of the complete stoppage of their own 
activities. 

They did it through organization. A Citizens' Com- 
mittee of One Thousand was formed as soon as the 
strike was called, and its directors were in session 
practically 24 hours a day. To them all citizens re- 
ported, and through them all duties were assigned. 
They gathered the city's motor cars, inventoried its 
food, registered its manhood, and met all emergencies. 
Business men swept the streets and gathered garbage 
while their wives plugged the telephone switchboards. 
Bankers delivered groceries. Editors set their own 
type. Every automobile became a public vehicle. 
Hotel managers and owners stood behind their own 
desks and carried bags for their guests. All the city 
services, including the mail, were handled. The city 
suffered, but it did not starve. 

Whether a great American city could meet such a 
situation so well is doubtful, not because of lack of 
resources, but because of lack of organization to bring 
these resources into play. It would take a tremendous 
system of auto-trucks to supply New York, for ex- 
ample. The thing is possible — automobiles supplied 
the great army in Verdun with everything needful 
during the months of the German assault — ^but behind 
it there must be a great and efficient management. 
New York's stored supplies would hardly last a week, 
her milk would give out within 48 hours. The ability 
of the city to meet the emergency would be measured 
in that time. It is hardly to be hoped that officials 



376 LABOR AND REVOLT 

could move so quickly, and in Winnipeg it was tHe 
citizens, and not the officials, who saved the city. 

The general strike, then, remains one of the forms 
of Revolutionary menace against which America has 
prepared no adequate defense, but can prepare one. 

REVOLUTION'S OWN WEAKNESSES 

The growth of revolutionary spirit in the future is 
beyond prophecy. Everything that tends to discon- 
tent and unrest will aid it. Everything that tends to 
prosperity and security will help render it impotent. 

In the meanwhile there are certain weaknesses in- 
herent in the Revolutionary movement, which are in 
themselves a strong factor in favor of society. 

First of these is its disunity. This is inevitable from 
the very nature of the minds that turn to Socialism 
and Anarchism. The disagreements which have been 
pushed into the background in the hope of immediate 
victory through unity are likely to break out at any 
moment ; some have appeared already. The history of 
Radicalism in America is one long story of schisms in 
the organizations formed. It dates practically from 
1872, when the International General Council, the 
controlling body of the International Working 
Peoples' Association, was transferred to New York 
from Europe at the suggestion of Karl Marx. In 
1877 there was a split, and the Socialist Labor Party 
was founded. The International fell into the hands 
of the Anarchists. In 1881 a new association, the In- 



THE RED DANGER 377 

temational Workmen's Association, was founded. 
The weakness of the movement is shown by the presi- 
dential vote in 1896, when the Social Democratic 
Party, the only Socialist party in the field, polled only 
36,564 votes. In 1897 Debs founded the Social De- 
mocracy of America. In 1898 this party split, and the 
Social Democratic Party, the present Socialist Party, 
was formed. In 1905 the Industrial Workers of the 
World split off from the Social Democratic Party, and 
in 19 19 the Communist Party split from the Socialist 
Party. And these are only the major schisms. 

Another weakness is in leadership. The Revolution 
counts the support of many clever men, and some 
strong ones, but of few who have that saving sense of 
balance which marks the true leader. Among the "in- 
tellectuals" there is in general a mental inability to 
grapple with facts, an optimism and a depression that 
are both extreme, and that destroy judgment. More 
than a few of them have been failures in handling 
their personal affairs. 

DISTRUST A Frankenstein's monster 

Moreover, the Revolutionary propaganda itself de- 
stroys faith in leadership. It must breed distrust of 
all men, and this reacts on its strength. Too often 
there are breaches of faith by men whom the Reds 
themselves trusted — the I. W. W. recently has been 
convulsed over charges regarding the alleged enrich- 
ment of some of its officers at the expense of the gen- 



378 LABOR AND REVOLT 

eral treasury — and these throw suspicion upon all 
other leaders. 

Even the Reds, too, are capable of learning by ex- 
perience. The inevitable failures of most of the 
"schools of Revolution" in the Red strikes lose re- 
cruits and weaken the organizations in the end. It- 
will be a long time before there is another general 
strike in Winnipeg. The effect of that defeat went 
far toward checking similar demonstrations which 
had been planned for other cities. 

In the Michigan copper country, the scene just be- 
fore the war of a terrific struggle between the I. W. 
W. and Capital, the Reds in the present agitation have 
been driven out by the workers themselves, and there 
has been less labor trouble than in any other section of 
the state. The disease, like yellow fever, produces its 
own serum, giving immunity from a second attack. 



All these weaknesses must be discounted if the Revo- 
lution should once become a going concern. Then the 
contagion would spread, as in other countries, and 
sanity and prudence would be swept aside. All shades 
of belief would gather about the party which was in 
control, there would be no checking up of the leader- 
ship, past lessons would be forgotten. The forces that 
would be unleashed in such a time cannot be calcu- 
lated. To them the only answer would be force, and 
great force. 



THE RED DANGER 379 

"We are perfectly safe here — unless something 
breaks," a state labor commissioner writes. "Then, 
with all reverence, God only knows what will happen. 
Anything might !" 

What, then, is the menace of the Revolution? 

Certain trouble, past, present and to come ; disorder, 
violence and serious loss. 

But of actual and complete success of making 
America a Russia, practically none at present, unless 
through weakness and cowardice armed revolt should 
somewhere be permitted to make a start that would 
unloose chaos. 

The future depends on the justice and prosperity the 
nation can compass, and chiefly on the Labor organiza- 
tions. 



CHAPTER XXII ' 

THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 

The lack of nutrition in owl's milk — ^Labor demands that must 
be met — Labor's political power, its menace and the cure — 
The hope of increased prosperity — Changes in distribution 
not enough — Means of swelling production — The price of in- 
dustrial security — Democracy in industry — The margin of 
time. 

A CERTAIN labor agitator was holding forth on the 
need of high wages and short hours to a small and 
meek audience in the smoking compartment of a Pull- 
man running out of Washington one evening. Labor 
must have both, he said, and suggestions that Labor 
should increase production were met with a fine and 
lofty scorn. After some time a person who appeared 
to be a stock farmer rose from his corner, knocked 
the dottle from his pipe, and pointed the stem at the 
orator. 

"More pay and less work,'* he growled. "You fel- 
lows are aiming to live on owl's milk. It won't be 
long till you're all hootin'. Neither you nor anybody 
else can live on what ain't there." 

The farmer's simple simile tells the danger that lies 
behind the Labor Giant's attitude to-day, as previous 
chapters have tried to show. 

380 



THE LABOR-ALARM-CLCOK 381 

That attitude contains the germs of infinite dis- 
aster. What are the chances of these germs sprouting, 
of that disaster taking place? What effects may we 
expect from Labor's growing power? What re- 
sources exist to meet the demands for shorter hours, 
higher wages? What hope is there that Labor itself 
will curb its appetite? In short, what is the prob- 
ability of the nation's escaping the bankruptcy toward 
which too high wages and too little production would 
drive it? 

The real menace of Revolution in the future will 
depend on the answers to these questions. It has been 
seen that Labor is not revolutionary to-day, that it is 
in fact the first of the forces that are opposing Revo- 
lution. But it has been seen also that if, at some 
future time, the economic miseries of bankruptcy fall 
upon America, whether or not it is through Labor's 
fault, the dam will break. And it will break, too, if at 
any time Labor loses the hope of steady and fairly 
rapid improvement in its condition under our present 
system. Labor must gain steadily but not too fast, if 
we would not have it turn to the Red panacea sooner 
or later. 

VITAL NEED OF MORE PROSPERITY 

Practically every demand that Labor makes to-day 
involves in the end higher wages. Profit shar- 
ing, political power, various forms of collective bar- 
gaining, demands for a share of the control of the in- 



382 LABOR AND REVOLT 

dustrial plants, the Plumb schemes, even shorter hours 
— all are based on the hope that through them Labor 
will be more prosperous. The influence from the Rev- 
olution that can be traced most definitely in Labor's 
attitude is the belief that wages should be much higher 
than they possibly can be. 

There is no question that wages are high, that they 
will be higher, and most important, that they must 
remain high. Labor will not go back to a lower 
standard of living without a fight of justified despera- 
tion. Labor cannot be asked to bear the weight of 
the war cost, and of the financial blundering that went 
with it, by sacrificing itself, its wives and children in 
the period while the inflation is leaking out of the 
business situation. Labor must have its share of the 
general prosperity which has brought on the orgy of 
spending in which America is now indulging. To re^ 
fuse this to Labor would be neither just nor safe. 

Moreover the demand for a "living wage" for the 
most unskilled worker has come to stay, however long 
it may take us to realize it; the demand for a wage 
that will "insure the sustenance of the worker and his 
family in health and reasonable comfort." What ex- 
cuse can there be for an industry that does not serve 
the public enough to be able to support its workers de- 
cently? 

THE DILEMMA OF INDUSTRY 

But with all this the deadline on wages must be 
maintained; they must not be permitted to pass the 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 383 

point where they can be paid from Labor's fair share 
of its product. This then is the dilemma in which 
American industry finds itself : that for justice, safety 
and humanity it is required to pay wages which are be- 
yond its present power. It is this that is causing the 
alarm among employers, and among the more far- 
sighted of the general public. 

This alarm is increased by the fear that Labor's 
growing power in industry, and particularly in poli- 
tics, will give it the means of enforcing any demands, 
however unreasonable and destructive. Labor so far 
has been blind, at best short-sighted, and has used 
its power to force up wages and curtail production 
without regard to the general welfare, or the danger 
of ultimate catastrophe. There seems little hope that 
Labor itself will show enough self-restraint to insure 
the future. 

POWER WILL FORCE RESPONSIBILITY 

Labor's growing political power need not be taken 
too seriously, however. It can and will be met under 
the methods already provided in our system of govern- 
ment as soon as the nation comes to a realization of 
danger, and there are rumblings indicating that this 
realization is coming fast. The big strikes of 19 19 
went far toward alarming the nation, and Labor, how- 
ever powerful a minority it may be, cannot resist the 
majority when the majority is aroused. Such laws 
will be passed as may seem necessary, and with them 
the danger will diminish. 



384 LABOR AND REVOLT 

There is a limit to the power of law. It cannot 
compel a man to work, and hence it has been argued, 
it cannot prevent strikes. It would be almost impos- 
sible to arrest hundreds of thousands of men, and if 
they were imprisoned they would still not be working, 
and the strike would be as effective as ever. But in 
fact the power of arrest often has stopped strikes, or 
prevented them, and other powers of the government 
can be called upon for aid. During the coal miners' 
strike there were not less than half a dozen instances 
of men returning to work when the leaders were ar- 
rested. The New York express ^teamsters wilted before 
a threat to man their wagons with soldier-drivers. So 
even the limitation on the power of the law is not 
complete. 

The proposal that Congress protect the public 
against Labor aggression naturally raised a storm of 
protest from Labor itself. The plan was declared un- 
constitutional, an invasion of freedom, and what not. 
Yet the same arguments were shouted when the pro- 
posal for the regulation of combinations of Capital 
was first made. Labor, too, will have to submit in the 
end, as Capital did. Neither the Constitution nor 
freedom have ever, in the belief of America, given 
any man or body of men a right to exploit or coerce 
the general public. This is what Labor claims, though 
Labor itself helped us teach Capital that there is no 
Constitutional right to take the public by the throat. 

It may safely be predicted, too, that Labor will be 
forced to accept legal responsibility for its acts. It 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 38S 

would be unthinkable that a corporation should claim 
the right, and should actually have and use the power, 
to inflict great damage on the public and on indi- 
viduals, and yet should demand complete exemption 
from the law, from any possibility that it might have 
to pay for unlawful damage or suffer for injury it 
caused to the public. It will, in time, be as unthink- 
able that a union should claim such a right. 

SUPREME RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC 

There are certain very large bodies of workers 
which in time will be forced to accept the principle 
which has been applied in law to the great public 
utilities — that the public interest comes first. They 
cannot be permitted to strike. These groups include 
policemen, firemen, postal employes, and other civil 
servants whose jobs are actually a public trust. With 
them there will probably be classed the workers on 
transportation systems, on public utilities like the tele- 
phone and telegraph and lighting services, and in in- 
dustries like that of coal mining. All these workers 
serve the public far more than they serve individual 
employer. America has decided that Capital so em- 
ployed must accept certain responsibilities and it will 
not permanently exempt Labor which is similarly em- 
ployed. 

Another form of the exercise of Labor power which 
an awakened public opinion will not tolerate is the 
political strike, the misuse of the strike power to force 
public or governmental action, such as the strike the 



386 LABOR AND REVOLT 

railway brotherhoods threatened on behalf of the 
Plumb plan. It is obviously intolerable in a democ- 
racy. Many good lawyers believe that such strikes 
can be reached under the law as it now stands, the 
law against criminal conspiracy which so often has 
been successfully invoked against combinations of 
Capital which gouged the public without violating any 
specific statute. 

To meet the injustice which may be inflicted by 
refusal of the right to strike— and that possibility is 
very serious, as recent treatment of civil servants 
proves — there will have to be constructed some special 
machinery through which the workers so handicapped 
can be certain of fair play. That machinery has not 
yet been invented, and in proportion to the success 
which is made in insuring its prompt action and fair- 
ness, will be the willingness with which Labor accepts 
restrictions on its power. Labor will help in con- 
structing that machinery, and it is one of the problems 
of the immediate future in which Labor's fitness for 
power will be severely tested. 

So the power which Labor will exercise in our gov- 
ernment need not be greatly feared. America has 
seen many minority powers dominant, and will doubt- 
less see others. Each has been guilty of sins, each has 
contributed some good, we have prospered and grown 
under them all. Labor probably will be neither the 
best nor the worst of them, and our lumbering political 
machinery provides the means for a cure if Labor's 
sins become excessive. 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 387 

THE DANGER OF BANKRUPTCY 

The economic danger will remain, the danger that 
Labor's demands will be such that if they are granted 
they will bring bankruptcy, and if they are refused 
they will bring Revolution. 

There are obviously two ways of meeting this 
danger, by inducing Labor to reduce its demands, or 
by increasing our prosperity — our production — to the 
point where those demands can be satisfied, at least 
measurably. 

Of the first possibility it should be remarked that 
Joshua is the only man on record who made the sun 
stand still. Labor's demands are in their essence just, 
normal, fundamental and healthful — in many ways 
they are an alarm-clock, giving notice of serious ills 
in our industrial system which must be corrected. It 
it in the expression of those demands, in too great 
haste and too great greed, in short-sightedness and 
lack of education, that the trouble lies. There is every 
possibility of modifying this expression, limiting the 
immediate aims, if fairness and honesty be brought 
along with the facts into conferences with Labor. 
But it may be assumed that Labor's demands always, 
and very properly, will crowd and hurry industry to- 
ward greater progress. 

The real defense against Labor unrest, now and 
always, will be in this economic progress, which means 
in steadily increased production. 

There is little possibility of relief through changes 



388 LABOR AND REVOLT 

in our system of distribution of wealth. Such changes 
must come, and are coming, but they are and must 
be, too slow to aid much in the immediate crisis. As 
has been shown, too, when they are all made, the result 
will be too slight to meet the demands. 

SMALL EFFECT OF GREAT INJUSTICES 

The changes to be made in distribution are, in 
fact, far more important for the effect they will have 
on the beliefs and spirit of Labor, than they can pos- 
sibly be in cash results. Our distribution is now prob- 
ably the worst in the world — certainly nowhere do 
fortunes grow with such startling suddenness. Yet 
proof that this fact, however serious, is not vital is 
seen in the balancing fact that Labor here is from two 
to five times as prosperous as in other countries. 

In one thing only does it seem likely that much is 
to be accomplished by an attack on wealth, and even 
this will produce more in the way of the attainment 
of Democracy and in progress toward equality of 
opportunity than in cash benefits to Labor. That is 
in the limitation of inheritances by law in such a way 
that there can be no transmission of industrial power. 
The inheritance of priestly, military and political 
power has been gradually eliminated, and Labor has at 
least the force of successful analogy behind its de- 
mand that it should not be possible for a man who 
has not earned it to rule the destinies of thousands 
through his inherited control over their work. 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 389 

THE WIDOW^S CRUSE — PRODUCTION 

So all the possibilities from better distribution are 
inadequate to the need. Not so with the possibilities 
of increased production ; they are almost infinite. The 
last fifty years have seen our average prosperity more 
than doubled — the next can as easily see it quadrupled. 
The same forces which have been at work for us in 
the past half century will remain at their tasks, and 
in increasing our economic welfare they will outweigh 
ten-fold any possible reforms in distribution. 

Something of their possibilities may be judged from 
the past. We have not yet begun to use the latent 
resources of the Taylor system, for instance — the 
system that by gauging the strength of men to their 
tasks multiplied their power. At Bethlehem, follow- 
ing Taylor's experiments, ten different types of shovels 
were substituted for the single one that had been in 
use, each of the new ones calculated to lift just 21 
pounds of the material in which it was to be used. The 
result was that 120 men did the work of 500. His 
study and elimination of waste motions enabled 30 
masons to outstrip 100. Here alone is a method that 
when generally used will increase Labor's earning far 
above anything that could be gained from absolutely 
equal distribution. 

Nor have we begun to employ the resources of 
modern psychology. There is limitless waste from 
the square pegs in round holes, and science is begin- 
ning to tell us how to select human pegs. Barely 



390 LABOR AND REVOLT 

enough of this has been done to show what lies beyond. 
Such tests were applied in a shop where 120 girls 
were rolling ball bearings on the backs of their hands 
and picking out the defective ones with a magnet. 
As a result of careful weeding 35 girls did all the 
work, with two-thirds greater accuracy, in shorter 
hours and at more than double wages. These tests also 
found what the abilities of the other girls were and set 
them at work which in the end made all more pros- 
perous. 

There is, too, the greater efficiency which comes 
with prosperity, with the chances given the worker to 
release his suppressed ambitions and desires, with the 
waning of the economic fears which have made the 
lives of workers a nightmare, with the better food 
and shelter and recuperative amusements. The very 
fact that there is discussion as to whether or not 
shorter hours increase production testifies to the power 
of these gains in producing further gains. 

There are also great advantage to be won from 
more efficient management. Incalculable time is now 
lost in all but the best shops through faulty routing of 
work, delays in sending up material to the machines, 
and similar errors. There has been a great wave of 
reform in these matters, but the results have not yet 
reached a quarter of what they might. 

Finally there are the physical sciences. A student 
in a laboratory learns how to make tungsten ductile, 
and the electric light bill of the world is cut two- 
thirds. An engineer develops a system of controlling 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 391 

all brakes on a long train from the engine, and the 
speed of our traffic is doubled. We can no more 
guess what the next ten years can bring forth than 
our ancestors could have foreseen the locomotive or the 
telephone. Yet there can be no doubt that the future 
is as full of inventions as the past, and that each will 
contribute its share toward our prosperity, and thus 
toward our safety against dangerous agitation. 

SETTING LABOR FREE TO WORK 

Chief of all the factors that can enable us to in- 
crease production, however, is Labor itself, and here, 
as has been shown. Labor itself stands squarely in 
the way. But Labor's stand is based upon a series of 
historic and present injustices which go far toward 
excusing, if they do not quite justify its stand. To 
induce Labor to change its attitude America must 
pay a price, and it may well be called the price of 
industrial security. 

It is easily stated and almost impossible of complete 
attainment and is this: Labor should he assured that 
it will receive, always and of right, its fair share of all 
that it produces. 

It is to this end that industrial reforms should be 
aimed, for if this is even approximated we may ex- 
pect from Labor such an increase in its turn-out as 
will give to it and to all of us prosperity and to spare. 
Labor trouble would drop to a minor annoyance, and 
the danger of class-revolution would vanish utterly. 



392 LABOR AND REVOLT 

To secure this, it need not be said, is a colossal task. 
Much may be done by the individual employer, espe- 
cially toward decreasing resentment, but no real solu- 
tion can come in this way, since however desirous an 
employer may be of justice to the workers, he is 
handicapped by competition with others who are quite 
sure to have no scruples. If he cannot meet them he 
must go out of business, and if he does meet them, 
usually, he cannot be just and much less generous. 

None of the various schemes which have been at- 
tempted for assuring Labor its share have been en- 
tirely successful. Profit-sharing seemed to promise 
much, but it has been found that Labor comes to con- 
sider its annual slice of profits a part of its contract 
wages, and that when a lean year forces a reduction 
of that slice it protests as at a cut in wages. More- 
over, and this is fundamental, it imposes on the 
worker a share of the losses of bad management, over 
which he has no control, and gives benefits or losses 
depending on his luck in working for a prosperous 
firm. Nor does the worker trust the employer's state- 
ments of the facts. 

The bonus system has done better in stimulating 
production, but it has been impossible to give it a fair 
test so far, since Labor holds to its attitude that 
stimulation of any kind results in decreasing the 
amount of work left for others to do, and that fast 
work is a kind of class-treason. 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 393 

DANGERS IN LABOR-CAPITAL ALLIANCE 

The sharing by Labor in the actual control of the 
industry in which it works is now coming to the front 
and has great possibilities but it has hardly been tried, 
and indeed before there can be any great hope in 
co-management both Labor and employer need much 
education, if not a re-birth. Moreover, unless this 
brings increased production it will become only a form 
of joint robbery of the public, and therefore a pur- 
chase of present industrial peace at the price of future 
disaster. 

In fact it is no answer to the present problem when 
Capital and Labor get together and pacifically agree 
to fleece the public. We have seen a good deal of 
that. The situation in one great industry, where 
prices have risen far beyond those in any other, re- 
flects such a "community of interest." The electro- 
typers in New York recently took such complete con- 
trol of their employers that they actually dictated a 
new scale of prices to customers, and pocketed the 
proceeds. The danger of such a solution in the coal 
trade, following the miners' strike, was so great as 
to cause the resignation of Dr. Garfield, the Federal 
Fuel Administrator, who saw no possible outcome 
other than the further exploitation of the public. This 
form of solution simply gives one body of workers 
an advantage over all the others, and reduces the 
chances of a final successful adjustment. 



394 LABOR AND REVOLT 

POSSIBILITIES OF A SOLUTION 

It seems, however, that it is along the line of joint 
control that this solution is most likely to be found, 
since with all its dangers it will give to Labor not only 
assurance of sharing fairly in the product, but also 
that independence and self-respect which are neces- 
sary to met the spiritual qualities underlying the 
present unrest. It was foreseen nearly three-quarters 
of a century ago by John Stuart Mill, when he wrote: 

The form of association, however, which, if mankind con- 
tinues to improve, must be expected in the end to pro- 
dominate, is not that which can exist between a capitalist 
as chief and work-people without a voice in the management, 
but the association of the laborers themselves on terms of 
equality, collectively owning the capital with which they 
carry on their operations and working under managers 
selected and removable by themselves. 

That we are still far from this goal has not de- 
tracted an iota from the force of this prediction. 

Whatever the solution or solutions may be, what- 
ever system may be devised that will give Labor the 
assurances under which it will produce as much in- 
stead of as little as it can, they will have to be backed 
by legislation in order to assure equal conditions for 
all employers, and equal work for given pay. Here 
again will come a constructive programme which 
Labor, through its legislative and political power, will 
have a hand in shaping, and in which its leadership 
will be tried. 



THE LABOR ALARM-CLOCK 395 

Fortunately there is time for the solution of these 
problems, though recent troubles prove how expen- 
sive each day's delay is, and will be. The great dangers 
from Labor's attitude, however, are of slow growth; 
unless there is actual Revolution it will require many 
years for the most grasping of policies to reduce the 
resources of America to the vanishing point, and those 
years are available for the sane and just working out 
of the necessary reforms — those reforms which the 
Revolution so intelligently fears. 

TEMPORARY DEFENSES ARE AMPLE 

While all these slow-moving changes are coming 
about society always has as an immediate defense the 
same safeguards against undue Labor aggression that 
it has against Revolution — organization and force. 
The former is the orderly and democratic offset to 
the power of labor organization, whether in industry 
or politics. We have to-day organizations to repre- 
sent many interests — there are more than seventy such 
bodies, each with its particular desires and fears, with 
headquarters at Washington to influence legislation. 
But there is none for the greatest group of all — the 
consuming public. It depends for its service on the 
chance and often uninformed spirit of officials. If 
it could make its need and demands known these offi- 
cials would listen most attentively; and of its own 
power it can protect the public against possible misuse 
of power by Labor. 



396 LABOR AND REVOLT 

For the use of force against Labor there is seldom 
excuse. It is a terrible and temporary expedient, 
tiding over a crisis at enormous cost, for it cures 
nothing and teaches nothing, and leaves a wake of 
hatred and fear that will in time collect from society 
a heavy bill. 

The dangers from the labor movement, then, are 
three: over-power, over-pay and under-production. 
And the chief of these is under-production. For the 
first there are adequate safeguards, it must be met, but 
need not be feared. The second and third need the 
same cure, an increase in production. Both are al- 
ready upon us, but the full bill for their evil con- 
sequences will be slow in coming, and we have time 
and means for a cure before it falls due. 

If, however, we fail of that cure, we must then 
face all the evils that we and that Labor now fears 
and more : the danger of national bankruptcy and of 
a Revolution of desperation. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 

A plea for the Reds — Evils that lead to Revolution an inherit- 
ance of centuries — An excuse for the "intellectual zealots" — 
The great purpose and movement behind Labor's errors — 
The wide need of education and counter-propaganda — The 
price of security more complete civilization — No need to 
fear result — Final outcome certain to be progress. 

I CANNOT bear to close this book without saying a 
word in behalf of those against whom it is directed — 
my friends and enemies, the Reds. Dangerous they 
all are, and many rabid, yet it is impossible to know 
them without coming to the realization that they are 
themselves a symptom of social disorder and not the 
real ailment of Civilization. Vicious as their form 
of protest is, deadly as the cure they propose, they 
nevertheless show a real sickness which needs real 
remedy. They must be checked, by force if neces- 
sary, but to suppress them without listening to their 
complaints would not only be unjust, it would leave 
a seed pregnant with future disaster. 

To see the Revolution in America as it really is, 
to get the understanding which will enable us to reach 
its roots, we must look beyond the surface that shows 
here, back to the desolate peasant hovels and the 

397 



398 LABOR AND REVOLT 

festering slums of Europe. It is there that the Revo- 
lution is born of masses of human beings starving, 
freezing, ground to fragments, desperate. 

If in America we do not find it suffering these 
things, yet it does suffer even here, and its sufferings 
are seen through minds dwarfed and twisted by the 
ages of oppression, and obsessed with the fears which 
those ages have made instinct. 

Such minds cannot truly weigh causes and effects, 
they cannot discern remedies. To such minds any 
theory that offers salvation to all the world they know 
and safety to themselves, becomes religion. And who 
can blame them if, when they see here as great ostenta- 
tion of wealth as that which ground their fathers, and 
are splashed in the gutters as their fathers were with 
the mud thrown by the wheels of riches, they transfer 
to America the hatreds and rancors of their birth 
places ? 

"The masses," sneered Renan, "do not count; they 
are a mere bulk of raw material out of which, drop 
by drop, the essence is extracted." "The people, sir," 
declared Hamilton, "the people is a great beast." 

We have learned better now, but such these Reds* 
fathers were considered, and as such they were 
treated. Even in America most of them lack the wit 
to reach out and take the opportunities offered, and 
so here they still suffer, partly through our fault, but 
chiefly through their own. 

Or rather through that of their fathers, who brought 
into the world more children than they could provide 



PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 399 

for and overcrowded the scanty table which Civiliza- 
tion spreads. Our fathers did not teach them better — 
but ours, too, knew no better. So the attempt to fix 
blame must go back and back, and is valueless. These 
people are here, and if it be said that there is no 
reason why we should inherit the ills of Europe, the 
fact remains that we undertook that burden, however 
heedlessly, when we opened the doors to its refugees. 
These people are here, they have suffered and suffer 
still. Fight and condemn them we must, for their 
sakes as well as our own, but there is no justification 
for hatred in our fighting. 



Even for the * 'intellectuals*' there is something to 
be said. Many of them are the children of these un- 
fortunates, rushed mechanically through our schools, 
and now mentally dressed in an education that fits 
neither their emotions nor their instincts ; immigrants 
still, with their vocabulary swollen and their under- 
standing unchanged. 

Among them, too, are some Americans. A few are 
adventurers, either disregarding the truth, or not car- 
ing what truth is, but seeking excitement, notoriety, 
license. For them, for those who preach disruption 
for pay and for the hidden conspirators, there can be 
neither sympathy nor pity, and the deeper acquaintance 
with them grows, the deeper must be our detestation. 

But they are the minority. There are many others 



400 LABOR AND REVOLT 

who are making heavy sacrifices without thought of 
self, who are of the stuff of which martyrs are made, 
zealots. These are people of deep sympathy and warm 
emotions — sympathy and emotions which are so deep 
and quick that they leave no time nor place for thought 
and judgment. To them the evils of to-day seem 
greater than they are, and the remedying of them 
easier than a dream. They have dwelt so long with 
ideas that they cannot distinguish fact from thought; 
to them thoughts have the weight of truth, and facts 
can be argued out of existence. They have a sort of 
intellectual myopia, an emotional hypersemia. 

THE HIGH MISSION OF LABOR 

No plea should be necessary in behalf of Labor, for 
this book has been quite worthless if it has not shown 
that Labor is voicing demands which are based on 
justice, economic truth and high aspiration. Its move- 
ment is one of the big constructive and progressive 
forces of society, it must be governed, instructed and 
perhaps curbed ; but whoever would stop it is attempt- 
ing to deny to American citizens the right to progress, 
to ambition and to prosperity. 

Nor can there be any turning back of the movement 
for more than a brief time. Even in Australia, where 
the failures of labor government are becoming ap- 
parent and are generally recognized, there is no talk 
on either side of attempting retreat. Whatever the 
difficulties and danger along the forward path, they 



PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 401 

must be faced, and if they lead even to revolutionary 
changes in our social machinery — what then? The 
world has had many revolutions in its time; we in 
America are the beneficiaries of half a dozen. The 
results of revolution have been good except only when 
revolution has unloosed the horrors of the class-war. 
Barring that abomination we could doubtless stand 
another revolution and might be the better for it. 

ENLIGHTENMENT THE GREATEST NEED 

To cure the ignorance of the Reds and the excesses 
of Labor, and to guide us all in the progress which 
must eliminate the ills of which they complain, there 
remains that fundamental need and resource of De- 
mocracy — education. The wide recognition of this 
need is one of the most hopeful of contemporary 
signs. An education based on facts and truth alone, 
without bluff or pretense, will be a prompt specific. 
Under it even Socialism may become nothing more 
than an advance guard of progress, making experi- 
ments from which we shall all benefit, either in leaf'n- 
ing new paths or in marking dangers. 

Such a campaign of education cannot be too broad; 
It must not only reach the children, and not only the 
alien; it must reach Capital and Labor and the gen- 
eral public. Labor must learn that it is being ex- 
ploited by the Revolution: Capital that its own ex- 
ploiters of Labor are its worst enemies, each more 
dangerous than a score of agitators. We must all 



402 LABOR AND REVOLT 

learn the fundamental laws of economics, the basic 
need of production and the pitfalls of social cure-alls, 
as we are learning the laws of health and the danger 
of panaceas. I have seen a man ride up to a way- 
side store, buy a bottle of patented liniment, rub half 
the contents on his horse's swollen shoulder, and drink 
the rest! Too many of us are still hoping that we 
may find the cure for all kinds of social ills in the 
same bottle. 

This education must include, too, the careful watch- 
ing and frank answering of propaganda, both that 
of the Hun and that of the Red. The country is 
afloat with it, and far too much of the counter-propa- 
ganda now being carried on fails to meet the argu- 
ments made. Perhaps some of it is afraid to, for 
there are certain true charges brought in the Red 
propaganda, charges which cannot be answered ex- 
cept by repentance and reform. To the Reds, and 
largely to Labor, failure to answer any charge is a 
confession of guilt; lying about it is even worse, and 
the man who in fighting such propaganda varies from 
the utter truth, either by distortion or suppression, 
is the Reds* best ally, for he undermines in a moment 
the work of a hundred honest fighters. 

There will always be those who oppose popular 
education — they are now fortunately few in America 
— on the ground that it breeds discontent, increases 
the demands of Labor, makes troubles. Doubtless it 
does, because increased knowledge has so far carried 
with it only too often an understanding of the unfair- 



PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 403 

ness and injustice which have been permitted. But 
workers, even Revolutionaries, are much Hke folks, 
and when they know the full facts, and know that they 
know them, they may be counted upon to deal as justly 
as any can. There will always be attempts to get a 
little more than the fair share, but that is not a fault 
copyrighted by Labor, and such attempts are without 
force and without danger. 

THE nation's balance-sheet 

To conclude : The dangers which America actually 
faces, both from Labor and from the Revolution, are 
very great and very real. 

From the Revolution itself disorder, violence, de- 
struction, but not Revolution in fact. The chance of 
that is so slight that those who urge revolt are guilty 
of a folly that can only be suicidal. 

From Labor waste, slacking, greediness, abuses of 
new-found power, but nothing that cannot be handled 
if with the intelligence which both sides must bring 
to the problems there goes an understanding desire to 
achieve justice, and when the understanding falls short, 
to bridge the gap with generosity. 

NO CURE EXCEPT MORE CIVILIZATION 

For the ills that spur both Labor and the Reds there 
is no panacea; the remedies are slow and prosaic — 
work, saving, experiment, reform. "The world's only 



404 LABOR AND REVOLT 

salvation is work/' declares Clemenceau, and that is 
the immediate need — ^but for the farther future the 
other elements are equally necessary. 

"We are still uncivilized in providing the machinery 
for industrial justice," Charles Evans Hughes told one 
of his audiences. 

The price of permanent security for the future, 
then, is the assurance of industrial justice — of more 
civilization. And with the assurance must go the 
knowledge on which the workers can base accurate 
judgment that it is justice they are getting. The 
formula is easy to state^ — its working out will be the 
problem for our best brains for a generation. 

In the meanwhile the preachers of panic may be 
assured that America will not die of fear. General 
Sherman complained that he had "suffered from many 
disasters, most of which never happened." And 
America has taken the lesson of that epigram to heart 
only too well. It is much more likely to fail to fore- 
see those dangers that are immanent. 

To fear the result of the present unrest is to show 
a basic distrust of Democracy, for our Democracy 
is founded on the idea of fundamental and equal 
justice to all, an^ its whole development has been in 
the working out of that idea into practical uses. It 
is in proportion as we have failed to reach our ideal 
that our present troubles have come upon us, and as 
our failures are corrected the troubles will vanish. 

There can be no doubt of the result. It will bring 
great advances in justice, in equality, in security, and 



PROGRESS UNDER PRESSURE 405 

in the spreading of that culture and refinement for 
which prosperity must be the foundation. For such 
things America can well afford the price of present 
distress and danger, were they far more acute than 
they are. We, or at most our children, will have 
cause to be thankful for the agitations which have 
driven us from contented lethargy to new achieve- 
ments in civilization. 



THE EOTfc 



